The Remnant of Danetheron
by Athgar
Summary: A mission to search for an ancient race quickly turns into a crisis nobody was expecting. McKay and Keller are trapped in a hostile environment and must rely on their wits and each other to survive. McKeller.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer** : Stargate Atlantis and all its characters and so on belong to MGM. Not, alas, me.

**Author's note** : I started writing this story a little after the end of season four but as usual got badly sidetracked. It's therefore AU from shortly after that, Teyla is back, Woolsey is in charge and Carson is still in stasis. I leave all other details deliberately vague. I hope you enjoying reading and please leave a review with any thoughts, critiques or suggestions you have.

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**The Remnant of Danetheron**

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Sheppard looked at the undergrowth spreading in all directions beneath the lofty canopy of the forest and sighed. "Remind me why we're here will you?"

McKay sighed too. "I think an advanced civilization lives here – or lived here at least."

"So far, so good," said Sheppard. "And you think this because you found something in the Ancient database that says so?"

"No."

"Then you cleverly pieced together intelligence from other sources?"

"No!" McKay exclaimed. "I distinctly remember you being at the briefing. You know my reasoning."

"Right." Sheppard drew out the word and nodded slowly. "Yet after trekking around this forsaken forest for six hours, investigating something you found scrawled on a wall in an abandoned lab doesn't seem so worthwhile."

"It wasn't _scrawled_ on the wall." Rodney threw his hands up in exasperation. "It was printed quite neatly actually and -"

He was cut off abruptly as he tripped over a low branch and was catapulted face first into a gorse thicket.

"Oh, for the love of God," Rodney exclaimed as he tried to stand up and pricked his legs on more spines. He glared furiously at Sheppard who was doubled over in laughter. Teyla helped him up, her face a study in neutrality.

"I take it back," said Sheppard after catching his breath. "We should do this more often."

"Found something, " Ronon declared from up ahead. "There's a dirt trail running west."

"Hear that Rodney?" Sheppard called out. "A dirt trail. Could well be some pretty advanced aliens behind that sort of infrastructure."

McKay, still wincing and plucking spines out of his clothes, said nothing.

Fortunately, the trail led them out of the vast forest and into a shallow valley chequered with fields. In the heart of the fields, a hill rose out of the plain. Low stone buildings with roofs of turf huddled around its base.

"Sorry Rodney." Sheppard scanned the valley through his binoculars, "This looks like a bust."

"Let me see," McKay snapped. Pulling out his own binoculars from his TAC vest, he surveyed the crude buildings. "Yes, well I'm sure they're more sophisticated than they look. They might just be into retro architecture and.." His voice trailed off when he noticed Sheppard, Teyla, and Ronon had stopped their survey and were all staring at him in disbelief.

"Okay, fine. Doesn't look like they'll be winning any Nobel prizes, but they might know something useful. We've come this far, so we might as well check it out."

"This is the very last time I support any mission you plan," Sheppard stated definitively. "_We wont need a jumper, the gate will be close to their settlement,"_ Sheppard mimicked. "Good call Rodney."

"You're just annoyed Woolsey green lighted my mission and vetoed yours."

"Perhaps we should introduce ourselves," Teyla swiftly cut in, inclining her head towards a man approaching them from one of the fields lining the path. Sheppard gave Rodney a meaningful look as he took in the man's rustic attire and farmer's tan.

The stranger smiled brightly and spoke first, "Welcome, friends. I have not seen you before. Are you travellers?"

"Yes we are. I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard." Sheppard waved a hand at each member of his team in turn. "Dr. Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagen, and Ronon Dex. We came here through the Stargate to make contact with the inhabitants of your planet."

"I am Yaneth. It is well that you have come. Please let me take you to our village and introduce you to our Elder."

* * *

The village was similar to dozens they had seen in Pegasus; a vision of agrarian, pre-industrial Earth. Yaneth led them to a low building in better condition than most others in the settlement and introduced them to Elworth, a jovial, beefy man with a moustache that would have made a walrus proud. He bade them all sit down around a table and signalled for refreshments to be brought.

"It is good to receive visitors," Elworth said, "We do not often see strangers in these parts. The galaxy has become a troubled place these last few years. Many of those that once traded with us have become paranoid or else have been culled."

"We are always looking to make new trading partners," Teyla replied, smiling. "I am sure we each have things the other will find useful."

"That would be well," said Elworth. He waved a hand to thank the young women who set baskets of fruit and bread on the table. McKay noted with disgust one of them was paying Sheppard a lot of attention as she poured goblets of some fruit drink for them. Sheppard gave her a lazy smile and she blushed. "We would be delighted to repay you for your faith in seeking us out. You are clearly more sophisticated than we, could we ask it of you to give us medical aid?"

"I am sure we could arrange assistance for you," said Teyla, "What is the nature of the problem?"

Elworth sighed and rubbed his eyes. "A couple in the village have fallen sick but we cannot discern why. We feared it was contagious and so isolated them as best we were able to but no others have fallen ill. This made us suspect an environmental cause but their daughter is fine so it would have to be something outside the family home that they were both exposed to."

"Ah, I should explain myself," Elworth continued with a wry smile as he noted his guests' surprised expressions. "You think I speak in terms more advanced than the leader of a simple people would know of. You are correct to do so, our knowledge surpasses our technology. The reason for this is that it is not ours."

McKay started to speak, realised nobody could discern a word he was saying through the mouthful of food he was chewing and hastily swallowed it. Studiously ignoring Sheppard's bemused shake of the head he started again. "Do you mean you found some alien technology?"

"My people have several devices that we have found here. I do not honestly know their origin," Elworth answered. He stood up from the table. "Come, I will show you them."

"Please excuse me Elworth," said Teyla as she herself rose, "I will go to the gate and request a doctor comes through to treat your people."

* * *

Elworth led them to the village square, an area of rough cobbles bounded by the low houses of the village. In the centre of the village lay a broad, low stone cylinder.

"This has been here as long as anyone can remember," Elworth explained as he gestured for them to inspect it, "I am not sure if it has always lain here or was moved. You notice the stone is perfectly smooth? It is beyond our skill to achieve."

The surface of the stone was a matte black. Elworth laid a hand on it.

"This device is a library of some kind," he told them, "If I think of constructing houses, it displays information on constructing houses."

The surface shimmered as he spoke and diagrams appeared across it. Elworth withdrew his hand and it turned black once more.

"I feel it is a very limited repository," Elworth continued, "It has taught my people a great deal but those who created it obviously knew more than it stores. My predecessor as Elder believed it was a gift from an advanced ally in times past but I think it may have been a teaching device for children that my ancestors stumbled across."

Sheppard looked at McKay and waved his hand at the device as if to say "What do you think?"

"It's certainly sophisticated. Doesn't resemble any Ancient or Wraith devices I've seen."

"There is another device for you to see," said Elworth and headed towards one of the houses lining the square.

It was dark inside and the building was empty other than another, much slimmer, stone cylinder. A small silvery disk was mounted on the stone pedestal, tapering to a point like an inverse funnel. Elworth waved a hand over it and a holographic display flickered to life above it in the shape of a globe. Elworth moved his hand across the surface and it morphed into a flat display of the landmass.

"This one has certainly been moved," said Elworth, his face illuminated by the Tracker's display, "When I was a young man it was kept in the Elder's house but there are stories it was taken from the ruins up on the hill in the days of my grandfather."

"Incredible," McKay murmured when Elworth focused the display on a yellow spot and it transformed into the hill, dots marking the positions where people stood.

"Is that one an Ancient device, Rodney?" Sheppard questioned.

"I don't think it is," McKay answered quietly, still focused on the Tracker as Elworth continued to manipulate the device. "How are you controlling that?" He asked the larger man.

"It is enough to think clearly of what you wish the Tracker to show."

"You said this might have been found in the ruins?" McKay asked, shifting his gaze from the device to Elworth. He nodded. "Can you show me them?"

* * *

Jennifer Keller sighed deeply and ran a hand distractedly through her hair. The desk in front of her bore the fruits of her labours for the past six hours - four empty cups of coffee, computer tablets and a mass of handwritten notes. The frustration and helplessness were invisible but she felt them all the same. Everyone told her not to beat herself up over it and they were right. Michael had spent months honing the Hoffan drug, she didn't have the same time or resources to play with. It was unrealistic to expect herself to find a solution in any timescale shorter than years. But every day that passed without that solution meant more deaths.

She was used to dealing with death, to be a good doctor you had to be. Sometimes there was just nothing you could do, a patient would have irreparable injuries or have reached their time or just had plain bad luck. She accepted that. Then there were other times when the patient wasn't beyond salvation but the road to it was so hard to find that they died before you found it. She accepted that too, knowing you were fallible was another part of being a good doctor. Sometimes you just got it wrong and someone would die. That was harder to stomach but she knew in those cases that she had done all she could and although the choice was wrong there was no way of knowing before making it and in the end she could even accept that.

This was different. The sheer uncaring scale of it floored her. Stalin said 'a million deaths is a statistic' and it was only now that she knew how wrong he was. A few times she had gone to the affected planets and seen the hope in the eyes of the people when she said she would try to help, seen the defeat in their eyes when they realised she couldn't and seen the life gone from the eyes of survivors and fallen alike when the drug had run its course and decimated the population.

She couldn't help wondering if Carson would have been able to make a difference if it were him in this situation. The thought didn't escape her that she would have been able to find out if she had found a solution for _that_ problem too. Sighing again she cleared her mind, this sort of thinking didn't achieve anything.

"Dr. Keller," Woolsey's voice crackled in her ear, "Please report to the control room."

"On my way," she replied, glad to have an excuse to stretch her legs and take a break.

Woolsey was seated behind his desk when she reached his office, forehead creased in a deep frown. It struck her how ill at ease he seemed every time she saw him. It couldn't be easy knowing your appointment as leader was unpopular amongst your team she mused but he hadn't gone out of his way to connect with them either. She cleared her throat to indicate her presence.

"Ah, Doctor," he said, gesturing for her to take a seat.

"Teyla just radioed to request you join her and the team off-world. They have made contact with some natives and believe there could be some useful trade established. To show goodwill she'd like a doctor to examine some of the villagers who have an illness their local healer can't explain."

"Do you mind if I send Dr. Biro?" she asked hesitantly, "It's not that I mind going but I've got a lot of work to do."

Woolsey surveyed her impassively for a moment. "I think we can signal our intent best by sending our Chief Medical Officer. First impressions are important."

She looked at his neutral smile for a moment and nodded. "I'll be ready to go in 15 minutes."

As she rose and left his office, Woolsey added silently "and focusing on something you can actually do something about will make you feel better."

* * *

The village formed a ring around the hill. Elworth led McKay and Ronon up a path to the flat top of the hill. Sheppard had elected to remain behind in the village to discuss trade with the locals and await Teyla's return. McKay couldn't help but notice that Sheppard very rarely strayed far from her side since her recent return to duty.

Slivers of metal, that looked to be of the same substance the Tracker was made of, poked through the grassy hilltop but it was hard to draw any conclusions about what they may have once belonged to. Following a lengthy hike, they came to a dip on the summit where an opening led into a dark cave.

"I believe it was found in here," Elworth said, pointing inside the cavern. "But I cannot say for certain. The Tracker has been in the village as long as any of us can remember and probably several generations before that. We do not come here often. The tunnels are said to be unstable."

"Do you know anything about who used to live here?" McKay asked as he fished a flashlight out of his pack..

"No, nothing other than the devices we have found."

McKay set off into the gloom with Ronon in tow. Elworth hovered outside. "I will stay here if you do not mind," he called after them.

"Do you have any idea what you're looking for?" Ronon queried as McKay wandered about aimlessly.

"I'll know it when I see it," McKay replied absently.

In truth, he didn't see anything other than a crude network of tunnels. There was nothing to suggest any civilization of even moderate advancement had ever existed there. He plunged on anyway, inwardly glad Ronon was with him to find their way back out.

Passing the entrance to an adjoining tunnel, a glint in the darkness caught McKay's eye. "Something in here I think."

A drip from the roof of the tunnel had washed away some of the mud from the wall, partially exposing a silvery surface. McKay clawed at the mud around it, revealing a panel embedded in the rock. He waved a hand over it experimentally.

"Here," Ronon grunted and whacked it with his fist. A display lit up in the air in front of them.

"Typical," McKay muttered. Ronon shrugged.

A collection of coloured tiles floated before him, arranged in a rough cube. Some bore markings and others were blank. McKay stepped around the floating squares. It was an interface of some sort he was sure but he couldn't make even a rough guess as to how to interpret it. Tentatively, he extended a hand to one edge. Some of the tiles flipped, others moved but he could discern no pattern.

"Do you recognise these symbols?" Rodney asked.

"No."

"I have absolutely no idea what this tells us," he said with a frown.

A section of the display began to flash. A high-pitched whistling rang out through the tunnels.

"What did you do, McKay?" Ronon asked, exasperated.

"I think _we_ triggered something by starting it up. Let's get back to the surface."

* * *

Sheppard met Keller and Teyla a short way outside the village. Miller, who had piloted the jumper had remained with it.

"I'm glad to see you Doc," he said as he fell in step with them and headed for the village, "This pair have huge purple warts on their skin. Really freaky stuff."

Keller grimaced. "Looking forward to it already."

A deep resonant sound, like a gong being struck, echoed across the village. The ground in one of the nearby fields split as a missile broke through the surface and screamed upwards towards the sky.

Sheppard reached for his headset. "McKay!" Sheppard angrily called out. "What did you do?" He demanded.

"I don't think I did anything." McKay's voice rang over the radio. "Why? What happened?"

Looking up in the direction the missile had taken, Sheppard winced as a brilliant pulse of light flashed across the sky and momentarily blinded his vision. Then, as his sight readjusted, he saw something phenomenal. Spewing flames, a deep hole punched through one side, a Wraith Hive plummeted into view. Dropping like a stone it hurtled out of view behind the ridge of the valley. The noise of the impact struck them like a physical blow and by the time he had regained his bearings there was only a plume of smoke rising over the ridge to suggest anything had happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer** : Stargate Atlantis and all its characters and so on belong to MGM. Not, alas, me.

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**Chapter Two**

McKay found Sheppard pacing around the village restlessly when he, Ronon and Elworth made it back. Teyla and Keller stood gazing at the column of smoke rising over the horizon.

"You're sure it was a Hive?" he asked as Sheppard approached.

"No, I think it may have been a Boeing," he scoffed. "Yes, it was a Hive. Went down right over that ridge, looked like it was shot up pretty good too."

"Did you see what the weapon was?" McKay queried.

"It appeared to be a metal tube," said Teyla. "It moved extremely quickly and made a great noise as it travelled."

McKay turned to Sheppard. "Like a missile?"

Sheppard nodded, "That's what it looked like. No sign of any trail on it though."

"Definitely not Ancient technology then," McKay mused, "Looks like there _was_ an advanced race here."

"Not advanced enough," Sheppard replied pensively. " It was beaten up but not destroyed."

"That could be good," said McKay. "There might be things we can salvage, or we might even be able to pick up some clues on how the weapon worked."

"That doesn't matter right now," said Sheppard. "We need to establish if any Wraith survived before we can do anything else."

"None have done so before," said Elworth.

Sheppard turned to him, "You mean other ships have crashed here?"

"Yes," he said, "Several in the last four years."

"You didn't think to mention that?" Sheppard asked incredulously.

"I am sorry, we are simply quite accustomed to it."

"It doesn't matter," he said with a sigh, "We need to check it out. If a few Hives have been downed here they might have been expecting it. Maybe they did something to protect their ship. We need to see if there were any survivors and we should get the jumper into orbit and see if there are any other ships in the system. Ronon, you and I will scout out the crash site. You three head back to the gate and let them know the situation."

"There's an easier way," said McKay, "we can check for survivors with the Tracker."

Sheppard paused. "Good point," he said and set off towards it.

McKay jogged to keep up with him. "Aren't you excited to find out more about this race? We've just seen they can shoot down Wraith, who knows what else they could do?"

"I get it Rodney but I'm more concerned about the immediate future."

Elworth caught up with them, red in the face and breathing hard. "Excuse me one moment, I'm not as young as I was."

"I think I can do it," said McKay.

"Not now Rodney," Sheppard said irritably.

"I can do it, just a sec."

Standing over the stone pedestal he waved his hand across the Tracker.

"See?" he said as the familiar globe appeared.

"Get on with it."

McKay focused on the large landmass they were on and flexed his fingers across it, cursing under his breath when the display flattened and zoned in on the coast.

"You said you could do this," said Sheppard, slightly amused despite the need for urgency.

"I can! Just let me work."

Moving carefully he zoomed out and began to pan over to the area of the village. A bird chirped from a nearby tree and he jerked his hand away and the display vanished.

"Perhaps you would like me to do it?" asked Elworth politely.

"No!" McKay insisted, "I've got it."

Moving more purposefully he brought it up again and located them on the map. Moving out of the valley a bright spot showed the impact zone. McKay sighed as he zoomed in closer and saw only the yellow blob.

"It's detecting the living parts of the hive. There's no way to tell if there's any Wraith alive or not."

Sheppard shook his head. "Plan A it is. Ronon and I will scout the area."

"If there are Wraith survivors we must request Atlantis prepare an evacuation mission," Teyla added, "Elworth and his people could not hope to defend their village."

Sheppard nodded. "Agreed. Let's head back to the jumper."

"I should stay here," interjected Keller, "I should make sure my new patients are fit to be moved if it's required."

"And if this place is going to be overrun by Wraith I want to take another look at the ruins while I still can," said McKay, "Who knows what else is in there?"

Sheppard looked disapproving for a moment and then shook his head. "Fine. But you're going to leave as soon as I tell you to."

***

McKay cursed their luck as he watched Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon leave. They find real game-changing technology that could shift the balance of power in the galaxy and immediately the Wraith turn up. He belatedly realised Elworth was looking between him and Keller, expecting an introduction.

"Oh sorry," he said, "Elworth, this is Dr. Jennifer Keller, our Chief Medical Officer. She's always kept very busy back on Atlantis but she still does outcalls on special occasions." McKay's eyes widened in horror and he quickly added. "_House_calls, housecalls I meant. I didn't mean that you... you could never be...not that I'm saying there's any reason why you wouldn't be able to if you wanted...but you wouldn't because you're a great doctor."

Keller carefully avoided laughing at his panicked spluttering. "Thank you Rodney. It's nice to meet you," she said, smiling and shaking Elworth's hand, "I'm told you have patients for me to see."

"Yes of course," he said, gesturing toward the west of the village. "This way please."

McKay walked with them on his way back to the ruins as Keller and Elworth discussed the symptoms afflicting the couple.

"It would help if you could bring me samples of what they have had to eat and drink recently," she said. "You are probably right that because no-one else is sick then it's not the food but everyone has different tolerance levels for toxins so it's best to be sure."

"Did you say toxins?" McKay asked in alarm. "I was just eating some of their food an hour ago. Could I be sick too?"

"I'm sure you're fine Rodney," she assured him.

"Shouldn't you check before it has a chance to develop?"

"Now Rodney," she said, smirking, "People will think you're just making up excuses to be around me."

"No no, I er.. was just um-,"

"Relax," she said, patting his shoulder. "You're not sick."

McKay fell silent as they reached the house in question. A young girl ran out the door and peered at them with large, bright eyes.

"Well met Morlena," said Elworth, stooping to bring himself closer to eye level with her.

"Well met Elworth," she replied somberly.

"Dr. Keller has come to try to heal your parents. She has come from beyond the Ring just to help us."

"Hi Morlena," said Keller with a bright smile, "I'm going to do everything I can to help."

"Good," said the girl, "That's your job."

"Charming," muttered McKay, "I'll head off to the ruins. Good luck."

It took him a couple of minutes after he had set off to realise Morlena was following him. He stopped and stared at her.

"Yes?" he demanded.

"I'm going to the ruins with you," she chirped happily.

"No, no, no," he replied, "I am going to the ruins _alone_, you are going to go back to the village and do whatever it is you should be doing."

"My parents never let me see the ruins."

"I'd listen to them," he shot back, turning back and starting to walk again, "Lots of dangerous stuff up there, you wouldn't like it."

"But you'll be there," she reasoned.

"That's it!" he snapped, "Just go home and leave me to do my work."

She stopped abruptly and as he turned to look at her he thought she was going to cry. _Great _he thought but fortunately she simply sighed and spun on her heel and walked back down the path. McKay shook his head and set off again.

The tunnel network was just as dark and confusing the second time round but he was certain now that there was valuable knowledge to be gleaned from the mud and darkness. He found a ramp leading downwards and followed it on the principle he hadn't been to the lower level on the first trip. A short distance from the bottom of the ramp he found a larger room, circular and preserved better than most of the surrounding area.

He stepped forward into the room, looking past the water dripping from the ceiling and thinking of what it might have once been. It had the feel of a control room to it. He could imagine standing here, directing operations across a city or even an empire, surrounded by holographic displays beating in time with his thoughts. Who could have built this place and why had they vanished from the galaxy with so little evidence they had ever graced it?

McKay's musings were cut short when he heard a light footfall behind him and he spun around to see Morlena standing in what had once been a doorway, smiling innocently.

"I told you to go home," he snapped, waving his hands in frustration.

"I wanted to watch what you were doing," she said with a slight whine.

"You shouldn't wander off by yourself," he said irritably, walking toward her to try to shepherd her back the way she had come in.

"_You_ did," she replied, darting around him and into the room to see what he had been looking at.

"I... yes.. but that's not the point," he stuttered in exasperation. He hated arguing logic with kids, especially when they had a point. "I'm not going to fall for that," he added as Morlena raised a trembling arm and pointed behind him.

Belatedly recognising the genuine fear in the young girl's eyes as she backed away he turned around and did a double take. Before their eyes the dirt floor shifted, patches of a smooth white surface appeared and ran towards each other. McKay felt Morlena hug his leg, shaking as he watched the white tide sweep up the walls. Absent-mindedly he laid a hand on her shoulder as he followed the changing environment with his eyes.

It looked for all the world like pools of some white liquid were running towards each other and merging but the surfaces formed were clearly solid. He realised his flashlight was superfluous as the changing room now seemed to give off light from every surface. The tunnel behind them began to transform too but his attention was drawn to the ceiling. Above them the ceiling was receding upwards. No debris fell, nothing appeared to be causing it but the distance to the rock above them perceptibly increased as he stared. A low noise somewhere between a crackle and a rumble started all around them.

McKay glanced at Morlena. "We need to get outside."

Grabbing her hand he set off up the tunnel which now had the appearance of an airy corridor. They caught up with the forefront of the changing wave and pressed on into the darkness. He stopped as light from an arch to their left drew his attention. As the walls of the connecting corridor turned white they lit up an oddly shaped, metallic construction unfolding from the floor.

For a moment he was tempted to go and inspect it but Morlena tugged at his hand and the sight of her eyes wide with fear returned him to his senses. Whatever was transforming the tunnel network was moving fairly slowly but the noise of it grew steadily louder as they made their way back to the surface.

McKay half led, half dragged Morlena down the trembling path, He saw Keller emerge from a house and look past them at the writhing hilltop. He turned as they reached her and looked back. The scene was unrecognisable from what had been there an hour previously. The grass of the hill had been replaced with the smooth white surface and shapes were emerging from the ground, twisting and expanding into regular forms.

In the middle of it all he saw what was unmistakably a tower, rising inexorably out of the hilltop It shone brightly in the afternoon sun. A city was rebuilding itself before their eyes.

* * *

**Author's note** : I hope you enjoyed reading this. Like most authors I'd be delighted if you could leave a review with any thoughts, critiques or suggestions you have.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer : **Stargate Atlantis and all its characters and so on belong to MGM. I own nothing but the (alleged) workings of my imagination.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

Miller opened the rear hatch of the jumper and saluted as Sheppard approached with Teyla and Ronon.

"Afternoon, lieutenant," said Sheppard. "I trust you saw the Hive go down?"

"Yes sir," said Miller. "What happened?"

"We're not sure yet. Looks like some automated ground-to-space weapon took it out. I need you to cloak and check for more Wraith in orbit. After you've done that head back to the gate and radio home," said Sheppard. He turned to Teyla. "Go with him and don't let Woolsey stall on us."

"What about you sir? And the doctors?"

"McKay and Keller are in the village for now," said Sheppard and sighed. "Ronon and I are going to scout the Hive. Radio us when you've seen what's up there and make sure you cloak before you leave the ground, there's no telling if it's just Wraith that'll get shot down."

"Understood," said Miller.

"Good luck," said Teyla, following Miller into the jumper. Sheppard and Ronon watched the jumper shimmer and disappear and felt the rush of air as it took off. They turned around and headed for the smoke drifting over the horizon.

The light was fading by the time Sheppard and Ronon crested the ridge. The ground sloped away from them in a broad swathe of heath until it was bordered by a still lake. The Hive had scored a deep gash in the landscape as it landed. It had evidently scraped its way down the bank until the forward section had entered the shallows of the lake and its momentum had evaporated. The hole Sheppard had noticed as the Hive crashed was even more impressive now that he had a good view. Several decks were exposed by the ragged tear in the hull, he estimated the blast radius at about a hundred feet. Slivers of daylight shone through the hole from the far side of the ship. From within the exposed decks eerie blue flames raged and the plumes of smoke rose.

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" Sheppard asked.

The tall Satedan shook his head. "I've seen a couple of cruisers crash. Mechanical failure probably. No battle damage. Nothing like this"

"Let's check it out."

They picked their way warily towards the stricken ship, weapons drawn. From under the shadows of the hull the cobalt fire was even more odd looking. They entered the ship through the exposed side of the lowest level. Sheppard gestured for Ronon to follow and set off in the direction of the intact rear of the ship.

Even for a Wraith ship this one was particularly unpleasant. Every surface had been singed and the organic walls appeared to be decaying. A foul stench assailed their senses. They found a Wraith halfway along the first corridor. It was very clearly dead. Slumped against the wall, the skin had been burned from its body. An expression of agony was still evident in the contorted grimace of its skull.

"Think he stayed out in the sun too long?" Sheppard joked, prodding the ravaged body with his P90.

Ronon grunted his approval at its fate and they moved on. Further inspection of the ship revealed dozens of dead Wraith, all seared in the same way.

"Let's check out the Dart bay."

Ronon nodded his assent. "You think we might be able to fly them back to Atlantis?"

"Maybe," said Sheppard thoughtfully, "Be handy to have more fighters for defence. Plus Rodney's always happy to have Wraith stuff to study."

They found the Dart bay in the same state of disrepair as the rest of the ship. The Darts had been destroyed. They walked to the closest pad and inspected the wreckage. It had been cleaved in two. The severance was strikingly clean, a perfect example of precision. There was no twisted or scorched metal, just a smooth division where once there had been a solid object.

"Typical," said Sheppard. "Nothing here but scrap."

Ronon straightened up from inspecting the remains of another ship and nodded.

"This can't be random damage," said Sheppard. "Whatever hit this Hive was designed to neutralise all its Darts. And roast its crew."

"McKay might still be able to learn something," Ronon offered.

"Yeah, maybe," he said. He sighed. "We've seen all there is here, let's head back.

They left the rotting ship and made for the ridge.

"Colonel Sheppard," Teyla's voice sounded grave in his ear.

"Find anything interesting up there?" he asked.

"I am afraid we have," she replied. "There are four Hives hiding on the far side of the next planet in the system. They have launched a significant number of Darts. I can only assume they too wish to search for survivors."

"Great," he muttered. "Head to the gate and get us that evacuation team. We'll be in the village."

"Understood, Colonel."

Sheppard turned and stared into the setting sun as he heard the distinctive whine of approaching Darts.

***

Keller followed Elworth inside, biting back a smirk as she saw the young girl set off after McKay. She was sure he didn't realise it but most children that met him found him fascinating, his excitable demeanour an engaging contrast to the stoic politeness adults often reserved for them.

It was gloomy in the house and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. A man and a woman lay on low, futon-style beds in the main room.

Elworth walked forward and knelt between them.

"This is Arvan," he said, indicating the man, "and Lorel. Dr. Keller has come from another planet to treat you, her people have more skill of medicine than we."

Lorel responded with a tired smile but her husband appeared to be asleep or dazed. Elworth patted both their hands and stood.

"I will leave you in peace," he said as he crossed the room, "I know it is tiresome to have lay-people watch you work. I will send refreshments along for you shortly. If you need anything, ask any of our people to find me."

"I'll let you know as soon as I have a theory," she replied.

"Thank you. And my thanks for your time, it means a great deal to us."

"Helping people is why I become a doctor," she said, smiling, "It's always a privilege."

Elworth left with a bow. Keller set her pack down against the wall and sat down beside Lorel.

"How long has it been since Arvan spoke?" she asked gently.

"A few hours," said Lorel.

Keller checked his pulse and propped his eyelid open to test his pupils were reactive with a penlight.

"He doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger," she said, "I need you to tell me everything you can, starting with what you were doing in the days before you fell sick."

Keller spent quarter of an hour listening and prompting as Lorel detailed her daily routine. She and her husband rose early each morning and went with most of the village folk to tend the fields. Morlena joined the other children under the watch of the village Prefects. Around a week ago they had worked by themselves in a new field on the perimeter of the village's farmland. A few days later they had started to develop the purple warts and fatigue.

She was about halfway through conducting a physical exam when a low rumble on the threshold of hearing distracted her.

"Can you hear that?" she asked her reclining patient.

"No, nothing," said Lorel sleepily.

"I'm just going to step outside to check if anything is happening," she said, trying to keep any hint of concern out of her voice, "I'll only be a moment."

The turf roofing they used on their buildings deadened sound quite effectively. As soon as she was outside she was left in no doubt that something was indeed happening. It washed over her, a deep rumble that she physically felt. The ground beneath her feet trembled slightly. Looking up to the hill she saw the figure of McKay scampering down the path, pulling Morlena with him.

Behind them the hill itself was transforming. Earth and grass writhed and undulated as she stared, mouth agape. Great white waves burst through the summit and solidified in regular shapes. A circular tower emerged and rose toward the heavens.

McKay and Morlena reached her and turned to join her in watching. The hill was almost completely gone. A circular city with high white walls stood in the spot it had occupied. One or two of the villagers' homes were wedged right against the pristine rampart. The gleaming central tower loomed over them and smaller buildings of silver and white flanked it. The last of the earthen patches on the wall closed over as Elworth and several of his people joined them.

"Blessed ancestors," the Elder murmured.

"Well that settles the question of where your devices come from," Mckay enthused. "I can't wait to see Sheppard's face when he sees this, doesn't look like a bust now does it?"

McKay grabbed his radio. "Sheppard, come in."

"Sheppard?," he repeated after a few seconds without a reply.

"Teyla?" he queried, a frown creasing his brow.

"Try yours," he said to Keller as he was met with more silence.

She obliged without success and they shared a worried glance.

"Odd," he mused, "Perhaps something in the city is interfering."

McKay consulted his Ancient scanner and shook his head in frustration.

"There's all kinds of readings," he said, "Can't tell anything from this. They know where we are anyway but in the meantime I want to look around in there."

McKay was mildly surprised when she simply nodded at him, accustomed to having his plans met with a disparaging remark.

"I will accompany you," said Elworth.

***

They circumnavigated the wall until they found a gate set into it. It was hard to spot, the wall was seamless all around but the gate was marked by a silvery rhombus. McKay experimentally placed a hand on it and the wall swung back at his touch. A gentle incline led up to the level of the top of the wall. Beside him, Elworth was looking awestruck as he gazed at the elegant architecture.

At the top of the slope they stopped to take in the view of the city. A quick check of his Ancient scanner confirmed that the wall formed a perfect circle. The tower directly in front of them was located in the very centre of the city, the walls were exactly one kilometre away from it in every direction. Emblazoned on the side of the tower was a silver crest, showing two circles bisecting each other at right angles, surrounding a flame. In size the city was dwarfed by Atlantis but there was something that struck him as otherworldly about it, even after all the bizarre and amazing things he had seen elsewhere.

The buildings were strange. The central tower dominated the skyline but there were others of considerable height dotted around the outlying areas. There was no discernible pattern to the position of the structures, no two seemed to have the same dimensions. Several patches of open space were surrounded by labyrinthine arrangements of buildings. Paths ran here and there between them. The ground beneath them was a light grey hue, it ran away in all directions seamlessly, like a perfectly calm pool of water.

As they approached the tower a doorway formed in the wall in front of them. Passing through it, McKay turned to inspect the wall that had closed behind them. On a hunch he walked back outside, a doorway once again appearing as he approached. Then he walked a few paces around the perimeter of the tower and walked toward it. To his delight he found the wall again opened for him.

"Did you see that?" he asked Elworth excitedly. The Elder had hesitantly stayed outside as the unusual spectacle unfolded before him.

"I am not sure I understand what I saw," Elworth admitted as he tentatively followed McKay inside.

"This tower doesn't have any actual doors," he said. "The walls open up to let you enter when you approach. In fact I even think that..." he walked toward the wall again, "Yes! If you're not thinking about going in or out they don't move."

McKay moved around the interior. The room they had entered was devoid of any furniture or ornamentation but now he had an idea of the way this technology worked he suspected that it was only empty because it hadn't received any input as to what was required of it. He paused, wondering if it would be possible to find a guide to how the city operated.

"I don't suppose there was anything in your learning device about-,"

Elworth exhaled in alarm. A figure shimmered in the air in front of them.

"Relax," said McKay. "It's a hologram. A projection."

It was tall, easily over six feet and rail-thin. Dark, small eyes were set deep in their sockets. Gnarled hands were partially obscured by the sleeves of a black robe.

"Welcome to the great city of Danetheron," it said. "You have demonstrated considerable potential in restoring this city. The suitability of your race will be assessed. The trials begin."

* * *

**Author's note** : Special thanks to the kind folks that left reviews previously. As always I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. I'm always deeply thankful to anyone that leaves a review with thoughts on what's good or bad, what could be better and what they'd like to see.

Additionally, I've been working without a beta on this story. So if anyone is interested in reading the early drafts and helping me improve them I'd be delighted to hear from them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer :** Stargate Atlantis and all articles of the Stargate franchise are owned by MGM. I own very little.

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Teyla looked down at the sparkling event horizon of the stargate from the cockpit of the jumper.

"Major Lorne and his teams are preparing to come through now," said Woolsey. "Good luck."

Three jumpers emerged in procession and the wormhole closed behind them.

"Colonel Sheppard," she said into the radio. "Major Lorne has come through the gate with three jumpers and fifteen marines."

"Good," he replied. "Leave one jumper circling the gate, keep a wormhole open to Atlantis. The rest of you get to the village and start moving people out. We'll meet you there."

One of Lorne's jumpers cloaked and began circling the gate. The others moved into formation and set out for the village.

"How many villagers are we looking at moving, Teyla?" asked Lorne over the radio.

"One hundred and fifty, perhaps two hundred."

"Okay," he said. "We're going to need a few round trips. We'll get the most vulnerable into the jumpers first. I want you to take ten marines and lead the rest of the people out of the village. Lead them away from the Wraith, we'll swing back from the gate and pick more up once the first group are safely back."

"Understood."

The gate lay in a clearing of the dense forest Teyla had earlier trekked through. The jumpers were able to take a much more direct path over it, and the valley was soon in sight, bathed in the watery light of the setting sun.

"We've got Darts ahead," said Miller. "Thirty of them. Heading for the village from orbit."

"Cloak your jumpers," said Lorne. "We'll do our best to get there first but I have strict orders not to engage in risky clashes."

The trio of jumpers cloaked and accelerated, the dense vegetation below them buffeted in their wake. As they followed the contours of the terrain down into the valley the scene unfolded before them.

Where once there had been a rustic village there now lay a gleaming city. A translucent blue dome hovered over it. Dozens of darts descended in a wide cone around it.

Metallic streaks arced upward from the ground and explosions flared against the darkening sky. Several more Darts hurtled into the dome and exploded on impact.

"Teyla, what am I looking at?" said Lorne.

"I do not know what has happened here," she said.

"Set the jumpers down a couple of kilometres from that shield," his voice continued across the radio. "Colonel Sheppard is going to want to know if it's possible to get through on foot."

By the time they had disembarked and started the short trek to the shield the scene had got even more surreal overhead. A second wave of darts had arrived and started blasting at the shield without apparent effect, while more of their number were decimated by salvoes of missiles.

As they approached the blue wall the remaining Darts abandoned their futile attack and broke off in the direction of their fallen Hive.

Lorne tossed a stone at the shield and saw it rebound. He gently pushed against it with his hand, it didn't yield at all.

"I don't see any way through this," he said.

Teyla pressed her radio. "Colonel Sheppard," she said. "We've found an energy shield in place around the village. We are unable to pass through it. Or at least, there's a shield around where the village used to be. Something strange has occurred."

***

"Trials? What trials? Who are you?" queried McKay, perplexed.

"I am the Assessor. My purpose is to determine if your race is worthy of the bequest."

"This conversation would go a lot quicker if you explained what you were talking about. What bequest?"

"The trials begin."

"Brilliant," he groaned, throwing his hands up in frustration.

"Any idea what he's talking about?" he asked Elworth.

The Elder looked completely bewildered at current events and merely shook his head.

"I don't suppose you would know why our communications aren't working, would you?" he asked the Assessor.

"The area has been isolated."

_Show me_, he thought. A flat panel slid down from the ceiling and showed an overhead map of the area. McKay frowned as he recognised a shield around them. Radio waves wouldn't penetrate it he realised, nor would solid matter. He concentrated on shutting the shield off.

"That is not permitted," said the Assessor. "The trials must be completed in isolation."

"You're really not helping," he snapped.

"Consider a stallion racing a mule," it said. "If the mule starts thirty ells ahead of the stallion, it must take some time to reach the point the mule started at. By then the mule has moved on. The stallion must take some more time to catch up to where the mule moved on to but by then it has moved a little further again. How does the stallion ever pass the mule?"

"Why would a stallion race a mule?" asked Elworth.

"Ignore it," said McKay. "It's an old paradox. It assumes units of time are infinitely divisible. Doesn't matter either way, convergent series theorems let us solve any real world problem like that."

"Very good, Dr. McKay," said the Assessor.

"Oh give me a break," he shot back. "What is this? Lesson time at Akademia?"

"The trials begin."

McKay shook his head and turned his thoughts towards the city itself, reasoning he might as well learn as much as he could about it if they were stuck inside the shield for the time being. His gaze roamed the display in front of him, zooming and panning synchronously with the probing of his mind. It truly was, he reflected, astonishingly sophisticated technology.

Halfway through examining the underground architecture of the city he noticed Elworth was staring in considerable confusion as the Assessor waved at the floor and brightly coloured translucent balls, each about the size of a basketball, appeared.

"How should these be arranged to achieve the most densely packed formation?" said the Assessor.

"_Sphere stacking_? Kepler's conjecture?" McKay scoffed. "That one's not even hard, shopkeepers worked it out centuries ago."

"Can you prove it?"

"If I had enough time. I've got better things to do," he said, returning his attention to the city schematic.

There were no sign of the missile launchers. He knew there was one in the fields just outside the village but he couldn't see any trace of it.

"Dr. McKay," said Elworth. "Why is this projection, as you say, posing these conundrums?"

"I'm starting to think we've activated a holographic quiz master," he said. "It probably bored its makers to death."

"I do not understand," said Elworth.

"Oh, er, sorry. I'm not really sure. Hard to tell if it's even working properly.." he trailed off, waving a hand at the Assessor which had had turned toward him and apparently got stuck and stood immobile between them.

"Have you discovered what has happened here?"

"Hardly," he said, sighing. "I've barely scratched the surface."

"Is there a barber among your people?" said the Assessor, suddenly springing back into life.

"Yes," said Elworth. "We learned of specialisation and trade from the learning device. I encourage my people to develop different skills."

"If that barber shaves all, and only, the men in the village that do not shave themselves, does he shave himself?"

"Pardon me?"

"It's another paradox," said McKay, frowning slightly. "Proved flaws in early set theory. It's a more recent problem than the others."

A flash on the semi-transparent panel drew his attention. It had reverted to the overhead view and black triangles were swarming around the area marked by the shield. As he focused on one, the map view was replaced by a live picture as if from a satellite. In the fading light he could just make out the Wraith Dart.

"Oh great," he muttered.

The Dart abruptly exploded. McKay quickly resumed his search for the source of the missiles.

"Genius," he murmured.

"What is it?" asked Elworth.

"I couldn't find the missiles when I looked before," he said, indicating the empty underground schematic he had previously been studying. "Because they really weren't there, they come from deep underground. Look!"

A silver thread appeared on the screen, working its way upwards to the surface.

"It's clever," he enthused. "They don't launch from any one point so nothing can target them from orbit. Unless someone blew the planet itself apart, they wouldn't be able to disable the weapons. Unless the power source was depleted, whatever that is."

"A man leaves a village on his twentieth birthday," said the Assessor. "He returns in 10 years but is only twenty-five years of age. How is this possible?"

"It is not," said Elworth.

"The man spent the 10 years travelling at close to the speed of light," snapped McKay.

"We should go back," he said to Elworth. "I need to try to get in contact with Sheppard. Maybe we can go to the edge of the shield and relay a message somehow. You should tell your people what is happening."

"What _is _happening?"

"Apparently," he said with an uneasy glance at the Assessor. "We're being tested."

They made their way out of the tower and down the ramp. The Assessor followed.

"For a complex number z greater than one, what is the real part of the non trivial roots of the function given by summing one over n to the power z from 1 to infinity?"

"Does this speech make sense to you, Dr. McKay?" asked Elworth in a low tone.

"Yes," he said. "But I can't answer that one. It's one of the last great unsolved problems of pure math."

"The trials begin. You stand before two doors," said the Assessor. "One leads to freedom and is guarded by a jailer who always tells the truth-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ask one of them which door the other would say he is guarding, I've read classical logic problems too. This is your test? What's next? If a stupid question is asked and nobody is there to hear it, is it still a stupid question?"

"I do not understand."

"There's a surprise," McKay muttered as he kept walking. "Who built this place anyway?"

"The trials-"

"-begin. So I've heard."

"You aren't answering my questions," he mused. "That means either you can't answer them or you're choosing not to. This place is so obviously full of neural interfaces that I can't believe you're having trouble interpreting what I'm saying to you."

McKay stopped and snapped his fingers excitedly. Elworth looked on curiously as the scientist turned to face the Assessor.

"You were created to test people. Whoever built this place wanted to be sure its technology wouldn't fall into unsuitable or unprepared hands. This is like the Asgard tests SG1 ran into on P3X-97. That means you're almost certainly much smarter than you're pretending to be and you don't give a damn about which door leads to freedom."

A fleeting look that might have been a smile passed over its weathered face as McKay bristled in front of it.

"You are correct, Dr. McKay. Your willingness to question what appears to be beyond your understanding does you credit."

"Well, thanks."

The pride at impressing a construct of a vastly advanced race was instantly tempered as he realised that everything he said and did was being measured for suitability and there had been no mention of what happened to failed applicants. With another uneasy glance at the Assessor, McKay walked back through the gates. He was more than a little glad when the hologram stopped inside the city walls, apparently having reached the boundary of its projection area.

***

"Colonel Sheppard." Teyla's voice called over the radio. "We've found an energy shield in place around the village. We are unable to pass through it. Or at least, there's a shield around where the village used to be. Something strange has occurred."

Sheppard paused, fired several rounds over his shoulder and continued running.

"We see it too," he responded.

Beside him Ronon scrambled down the hill and swung behind a boulder to lay down covering fire for him as the Wraith pursued. Two of the Wraith fell to his pistol but several more sprung up in their place, hurdling the tumbling bodies.

"We could use a hand here," he said, panting as he rushed down the hill. "We've got Wraith after us on foot and Darts not far behind that."

Sheppard joined Ronon behind the rocky outcrop. Beyond it the landscape was flat and offered no cover. To their right the shield was a blue shimmer against the night sky. A far-away glow lit the walls of a new-grown city.

The Darts had overtaken them as they made for the village, only to be stopped by the shield. Several of them had plowed straight into it and exploded on impact. The rest had hung back and began to circle around. Two of them had set down ground troops and Sheppard and Ronon had to retreat.

The Wraith were spreading out, attempting to surround their position. Sheppard was more concerned with the Darts, the billiard-table terrain meant they'd be easy targets for culling beams. As he and Ronon fired at the scurrying figures, the tell-tale whine signalled the incoming ships.

They never arrived. Drones shot overhead and intercepted them as they came over the brow of the hill. More drones rained down on the ground in front of them to screen their retreat. A jumper appeared on the ground behind them and they gratefully sprinted inside.

"Colonel, we've got to get back to Atlantis," said Lorne. "Wraith are crawling all around the gate, they know we have cloaked jumpers nearby and if they start firing blind we're going to be hard pushed to get through."

"Did you get McKay and Keller?"

"No, sir. The shield goes all around the valley, no way to get to them."

"We do _not_ leave our people behind."

"We don't have any way of getting to them, sir. The longer we stay here the more we risk more casualties. We have to fall back and come up with a rescue plan."

Sheppard grimaced in frustration. "Did you radio them?"

"We tried. Shield seems to be blocking communications too."

"Dammit!"

Sheppard looked pensively back across the darkened valley toward the isolated doctors.

"Sir?"

"Fine," he sighed. "Fall back."

* * *

**Author's Note : **Firstly, sincere thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed this story. I hope you are enjoying it.

Second, this chapter ruined my plan to post a new chapter every Saturday because I just wasn't happy with it. I rewrote most of it but I'm still not completely happy. So if you have found this installment less interesting than the previous chapters, try to stick with it because there are better things to come.

Anyway! As always I am very keen to hear what people think, especially if you have a suggestion as to what I could have done better or indeed if you thought something was particularly good.

A few notes on some of the references in this chapter for anyone who is interested. Akademia was the site of Plato's school from which the word academy originates. The problems posed by the Assessor are in order of appearance :

Zeno's first paradox.

Kepler's conjecture.

Barber paradox.

Twin paradox.

Riemann hypothesis .


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer :** Stargate Atlantis and all articles of the Stargate franchise are owned by MGM. I own very little.

* * *

**Chapter Five**

The village was in a state of pandemonium when McKay and Elworth got back. The whole population had gathered in the square. Torches had been lit around it, casting a flickering light over the uneven cobbles. Children ran around wildly, heedless of their parent's concern. Some were trying to quiz the database device for answers. Several were crying hysterically. One old man was doom-mongering at length, almost foaming at the mouth. Keller stood on the periphery, having been drawn away from her patients by the din.

McKay joined her, happy to hang back as Elworth strode into the crowd.

"Elder, what has befallen us?"

"I was in the fields and a wall of light blocked me! It runs all around the valley!"

"Is it the end of days, Elworth?"

The clamour died away as he raised a hand. Worried faces turned to him in expectation.

"My friends, I do not know what is happening," he said. He raised his voice as murmurs broke out among the assembled people. "However I have seen amazing things in yonder city. Our guest, Dr. McKay, is a man of learning, he can better tell you what it is that is transpiring."

McKay shrugged as if to say "Who? Me?" as the crowd turned as one to face him. Keller gave him a gentle push forward, nodding encouragingly.

"Yes, well, I haven't worked out all the details quite yet," he said. "The city has always been there, just lying dormant. I'm not even sure the hill was really a hill, it's possible it was just a camouflage mode of sorts. You see the technology that built it seems to be built entirely around neural interfacing. It's quite incredible really, a totally new paradigm even from the Wraith or Ancient technology-,"

A discrete cough from Keller cut him off.

"Less tech speak," she mouthed, inclining her head toward the puzzled faces of the villagers.

"Oh right. Sorry," he said. "Another people lived here a long time ago. They were advanced. Very advanced. Their city survived whatever happened to them and regenerated somehow."

"But why are we trapped inside this girdle of death?" asked the doom-monger, eyes ablaze with excitement.

"I, I'm not sure about that," he admitted. "Our communications aren't working either. There is a hologram – a projection of a man - in the city. It calls itself 'the Assessor' and talks about trials."

"I knew it!" doom-monger exclaimed. "Judgement is here! The harbingers of death will purify the village!"

"That is enough, Balorn," said Elworth. "There is no cause to jump to conclusions, especially fanciful ones. Dr. McKay, what do you recommend we do?"

"I need to go back and find out as much as I can from the Assessor and the city itself," he said, dragging his eyes away from Balorn who was bobbing up and down with zealous glee. "I need one of you to- OW!"

McKay grimaced as Keller poked him in the ribs. He turned to protest but her look of good natured amusement calmed him and he changed tack.

"That is," he said. "I'd be really _grateful_ if one of you could go to the edge of the shield nearest the crashed ship and see if you can talk to our people, tell them our situation."

He hesitated. "It might be better for you all to move into the city too. I don't want to encourage Nostradamus over there but I really don't know what will happen. It's probably safer behind the city walls."

The crowd stirred uneasily again.

"Very well," said Elworth, silencing them with a stern glance. "We trust your judgement on this matter."

"Do we?" called a short, squat man with bushy red hair and beady eyes. "They turn up and suddenly dark things are happening. Is it coincidence?"

"Peace, Leskit!" snapped Elworth. "Have you lost your wits? Do you not see Dr. McKay and Dr. Keller are trapped here with us? I know you are all uncertain. I know you are afraid. Do not let that fear drive you to irrational suspicion. We are not a people ruled by fear and mistrust, let us be sure we do not behave as such. Now, gather essential provisions and make ready to enter the city."

Elworth stood and stared at them until they began to shuffle off to get their belongings.

"I am sorry," he said, as he approached them. "My people are not used to such events, they mean no disrespect. I will ask one of our young men to run out to the edge of this shield, as you say, and attempt to speak to Colonel Sheppard."

He hurried off into the darkness, to assist some of the elderly.

"I get the distinct impression Leskit doesn't like me," said McKay.

Keller laughed. "You better watch out, he and Balorn might try sacrificing you to appease the 'harbingers of death'."

"Do you think so?" he asked worriedly. "Balorn looks mad enough to try it. Do you think I'm safe walking up there on my own?"

"Relax," she said, eyes sparkling. "I'm pretty sure none of these people would act against Elworth's wishes."

"Hmm," he said, unconvinced. "Maybe I should stick around and help you move your patients anyway."

"Sure," she said, smirking at his transparency.

***

"My apologies for the delay," said Woolsey as he entered the conference room and sat down at the table. "I had to take an urgent call from Earth."

Sheppard gave him a long stare but said nothing.

"What is the situation on the ground, Colonel?"

"Keller and McKay are in the village. As best we can tell the energy shield extends all the way around and over it. We were unable to make radio contact with them either. The Wraith Hive appears to have no survivors and most of its systems seemed to have failed."

"What would you say had happened to it?" asked Woolsey, tapping his pen on the table.

"Does it matter?" he snapped. "We need to get a rescue team together."

"We're dealing with an unfamiliar situation with several unknown factors Colonel," said Woolsey calmly. "It is hard to say what might matter. It would be irresponsible for me to send people back to the planet without considering all the intelligence for threats."

"Our people are trapped there right _now_," said Sheppard, rising from his chair. "We don't have time to sit around playing committee while they're in danger!"

"John," said Teyla, soothingly. "We cannot help them if we are killed because we did not think about the situation before rushing in. The shield may trap them but it also protects them from the Wraith, we can take the time to plan how best to act."

Sheppard sighed and sat back down. He closed his eyes for a long moment and then spoke.

"The alien missile had blown a hole in the side of the Hive. It was on fire but the flames were odd, blue-coloured and they seemed to cling to the ship. All the Wraith we saw were dead, skin burnt away. The Hive systems also seemed to be dead. Every Dart in the bay had been neutralised."

"Do you think this was a specific anti-Wraith weapon?"

"I don't know," he said. "It certainly did a good job of wiping them out for one shot. The way the Darts were cut up makes me think so."

Woolsey checked a report in front of him.

"Major Lorne," he said. "You report that 'a city has appeared' in the valley where the village lay. How is this possible?"

"I don't have the first clue," Lorne replied with a frown. "If I hadn't known it wasn't there earlier today I would have said it had been there for years."

"I see," said Woolsey. "Any theories Dr. Zelenka?"

"It's hard to say," he said. "The closest thing I've read about that might explain it is some sort of projective illusion but I really couldn't be sure without seeing it up close."

Woolsey made a note and nodded.

"What are the options for a retrieval operation?"

"The Daedalus will be here in a couple of days," said Lorne. "We could ask Colonel Caldwell to swing by the planet and attempt to beam them out."

"Do you think the beam would be able to penetrate the shield?" asked Teyla. "It appeared impervious to both ours and Wraith technology."

"There is no way to tell," said Zelenka. "But if this race built missiles that take down Hives in one shot, they probably built good shields too. I wouldn't bet on it working."

"Sending a ship into the system is risky anyway," said Sheppard with a shake of his head. "We know there's at least four Hives in the system. The Wraith have got a ship down, they know we were there and they know there's sophisticated weaponry down there. They might have brought in reinforcements by now."

"I agree," said Woolsey, frowning slightly.

"Plus," added Zelenka. "We don't know if the automated defences will only fire on Wraith ships or if any ship that approaches the planet will be attacked."

"Other suggestions?" said Woolsey.

"Going through the gate on foot is a non-starter," said Lorne. "There were dozens of Wraith on the ground with heavy Dart support. We would need hundreds of men to attempt an incursion. And even after that, do we have any plan for getting through the shield? We don't want to be trapped there fending off waves of Wraith without being able to get to our people."

"Agreed," said Woolsey. "Too risky to try the direct approach at this stage."

"I do have one bit of good news," said Zelenka. "I believe I have a way to communicate with them if we do get to the planet. Rodney and I have been working on a protocol to use in case of comms failures. We haven't tested it yet but I'm sure he will try it."

"We could take a cloaked jumper through," Sheppard mused. "Even if we can't get back through the gate, we could fly out of the system and the Daedalus could retrieve us safely."

"Very well," said Woolsey. "Colonel take Dr. Zelenka with you. This mission is reconnaissance _only, _do not engage in any circumstances. I will direct Colonel Caldwell to have the Daedalus in position outside the system should you need to take that exit route. Major Lorne will have a team on standby if an opportunity to retrieve our people presents itself."

"I would prefer to take my full team with me."

"I understand that," he said, pausing. "But this mission only needs a pilot and Dr. Zelenka. We cannot expose any more of our assets to risk than is necessary."

Sheppard looked at him coldly.

"Dismissed," said Woolsey.

They all filed out except for Sheppard.

"Something on your mind, Colonel?"

Sheppard stood up and leaned forward, hands resting on the table.

"_Assets_?" he said. "What sort of way is that to talk about the people under your command?"

He turned and walked toward the door, surprised when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Woolsey spun him around and stood in front of him.

"It is the way, Colonel," he said, in a voice that for once belied some emotion. "That the IOA sharks looking over my shoulder, poring over every report that comes out of this base and looking for reasons to end this mission, cannot find fault with."

Sheppard looked at him, taken aback.

"Do we understand each other, Colonel?"

"Yes," he said, and after a moment found himself adding, "Sir."

***

McKay followed Keller as she walked back to check on Arvan and Lorel. Morlena had appeared out of the crowd and trailed shortly behind them.

They were both asleep when they entered the house. McKay walked over to one wall to run a critical eye over the makeshift stretchers the villagers had made earlier in the day for the expected trip to the Stargate. She crouched and gently shook the sleeping woman's shoulder.

"Lorel," she said softly. "We are all moving up to the hill."

Lorel moaned groggily. "Why?"

"It's a bit of a complicated story but it's going to be safer up there for now."

Keller frowned as her charge just drifted back to sleep.

"Morlena," she said. "Could you get some help from the village to carry the stretchers up to the city?"

The young girl nodded gravely and slipped off into the night.

"We've got a problem," said McKay.

She looked up, expecting him to elaborate.

"The hologram we found up there worries me," he said.

"Why?"

"It's smarter than me."

It was said simply, without the usual bravado he used when discussing his own intellect. She wondered for just a moment if he'd have been as open about it if his team were in the room.

"Smarter than the great Rodney McKay?"

"It's surprising, I know. But there are a very few beings in the galaxy who are. But that's not the problem really. It's weighing us up. Weighing me up."

Keller paused as Morlena returned with several men of the village in tow. She oversaw the moving of her patients onto the stretchers and then hung back with McKay as they set off for the city.

"Why didn't you say this to Elworth, or the villagers?" she asked.

"They may make good farmhands," he scoffed. "But they're not going to be much help in matters of high science."

They filtered onto the path, following the throng of people making their way around the village to the gate and the long slope up into the city.

"Rodney," she said. "You do remember I'm not a physicist either, don't you?"

"Yeah," he said, awkwardly. "But I knew you'd understand."

She smiled at the veiled compliment as they continued up into the city.

McKay went ahead and walked toward one of the doorless structures, stepping below the arch that formed as Keller and her stretcher-bearers followed him inside.

She crouched down to verify her patients condition hadn't suffered in the trip. They were still fatigued but didn't appear to have deteriorated.

"Dr. McKay," said Elworth, appearing behind them. "Could you assist me in housing my people?"

"I'll take twenty minutes to show them how it works," he said. "But after that I need to get to work. There's so much to learn."

She rolled her eyes fondly at his renewed self-importance as he bustled off with the Elder. A sudden voice from the door made her jump

"Are you two together?" asked Morlena.

"Rodney and me?" she said cautiously. "Why do you ask?"

"His eyes when he looks at you. Mother says you can read a soul from the eyes."

"Your mother sounds like a very wise woman," she said, neutrally.

Morlena nodded sadly, gazing at her sleeping parents.

"Can you heal them?"

Keller crouched before her and took her hand kindly. "I'm going to do everything I can," she said. "Rodney might be able to help us, whoever built this city may have a medical database we can use to help."

She stood again, gazing around thoughtfully. McKay had said the city operated by neural interface, did that mean she would be able to manipulate the environment too?

"Dr. Keller?" asked Morlena.

"What is it?" she said. "And it's Jennifer for you."

"You didn't say no," she said, and slipped out of the building.

***

McKay discovered something interesting as he accompanied Elworth to help the villagers settle into their temporary home. They couldn't operate the technology as he was able to.

Despite coaching them on exactly how to operate the neural interface, none of them could achieve any tangible results. Eventually he gave up and walked inside, concentrating on shaping simple dormitories with fixed doors for them to use.

Curious, he went back to see if Keller had been more successful. He was happy to note Morlena leaving as he approached, the kid got on his nerves. _Better mind for science than Zelenka though_ he mused cheerfully.

When he had left Keller she had been in a spartan room with a couple of beds and nothing much else. Now she was working in an infirmary that looked every bit as well-equipped as the one in Atlantis.

"I see you have worked out how this place works," he said.

"It's incredible isn't it?" she said. "I was just thinking about how much easier it would be to treat them if I had proper equipment and all this just appeared out of the walls."

"I've never seen anything like it," he concurred, nodding. "Interesting thing is the villagers can't do it."

"Really?" she said. "Why do you think that is?"

"I'm not sure. Do you have the ATA gene?"

"No, never really wanted to fly jumpers or use the chair. Carson always said it was a hassle."

"No idea then," he said, frowning. "I better go and look around a bit. Good luck with your patients."

He made his way to the tower and imagined the control centre he had thought about in the tunnels before the city had regenerated. The sheer amount of information was bewildering and eventually he decided to try a more conventional screen. He brought up a map of the area. The city was marked along with the enclosing shield. A short distance away the crashed Hive was blinking and dozens of minuscule dots swarmed around the shield.

_Brilliant_ he thought. _Trapped in here and even if we can get out, we're surrounded by Wraith_.

There was no sign of any of the team. McKay deduced the Wraith must have driven them back through the Stargate. Deciding that the Wraith weren't going to get through the shield anytime soon he tried to access information on the history of the city and its builders.

"That information is not important," said the Assessor.

McKay jumped and turned around to see the gaunt figure behind him.

"Not you again," he muttered.

"Concentrate on the trials, not the past."

"How, exactly?" he snapped. "You haven't told me what the trials are. Why don't you want me knowing who built this place anyway?"

"The past is gone. The future is still salvageable. You must be assessed."

"I don't suppose there's any way to shut you off is there?"

"It would not be wise."

"Pity."

Mercifully the Assessor had apparently only come to prevent him reading about its creators. When McKay turned again it was gone. He tried to access information on the trials themselves but found nothing. At last getting bored he resorted to examining the specifications of the city itself. It truly was a remarkable piece of engineering.

It was interesting that the natives could not use the technology. It didn't seem likely the builders would have deliberately setup access for people from another galaxy. Perhaps they had gone even further and designed their city to judge the intelligence and mental capabilities of everyone that entered it as a form of suitability test.

That would, he reasoned, explain why he could use it. And Jennifer too of course, she was as capable as anyone on Atlantis.

McKay smiled to himself as he continued to pore over city schematics, looking for its source of power generation. He had known a number of brilliant, beautiful women over the years. Jennifer was different though. She had that wonderful compassion and caring demeanour that came so awkwardly to him and she seemed to really understand who he was somehow.

He spotted a conduit running underneath the city foundations. It led away below the valley, nearly a couple of kilometres down. There was a small chamber full of unfamiliar machinery.

"Rodney! RODNEY!" shouted Keller from outside.

She ran into the room, wide-eyed and ashen-faced.

"Quick!" she gasped, panting for breath. She grabbed his arm and dragged him after her.

The last slivers of light had disappeared and the sky was a velvet black. A cold wind whipped around the buildings of the city. The villagers were all outside, staring upwards. Streaks of fire filled the sky above them.

He saw Morlena standing nearby, face full of fear as she stared up at the looming fireballs. There were others standing around with similar expressions, some slack-jawed in shock, others clinging to their loved ones. Keller stood beside him, face grim.

A dull roaring steadily got louder and he realised the blazing missiles were arcing towards them.

"Judgement is here," shrieked Balorn, his face manic in the flickering illumination.

* * *

**Author's Note : **As always I hope you have enjoyed reading this chapter. In many ways this is where things really start to happen in this story.

Sincere thanks to everyone who reads and reviews. Please leave a review if you have anything at all to comment on in terms of elements that are good, bad, conspicuous in their absence or any other things you think I could do to improve.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer :** Stargate Atlantis and all articles of the Stargate franchise are owned by MGM. I own very little.

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**Chapter Six**

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**"Oh _no_," said McKay, aghast.

Keller heard the pounding of running steps as McKay turned and raced back to the tower. Inexorably, her eyes were drawn to the vision of armageddon above her. The blazing projectiles were closer now, visibly larger in the space of seconds. In fact they looked almost as if they were just tendrils of pure fire, coiling and coruscating as they plummeted. The crackling fire against the night sky was at once the most stunning and terrifying thing she had ever seen.

Thoughts of responsibility ran through her head. McKay had ran off, no doubt to perform some technological miracle. That left her as the only one left to try to communicate to the villagers what was going on.

_I can do this_. _This comes with the territory It's not just bandages and injections out here._

She found Elworth and rapped his shoulder to divert his attention from the heavens.

"You should get your people back inside," she urged.

"Do you think walls afford protection from _this_?" he asked, waving a hand skyward.

"Honestly? I don't know," she said, voice low so only he could hear. "But people feel better if they are doing something. The shield stopped the Wraith getting in, it might stop whatever those are too."

Elworth nodded and walked into the huddle of worried figures, pointing and shouting for them to get inside.

The city was now bathed in the hellish red-orange glow. Above the peak of the tower she could see the navy sphere of the shield. The first missile approached its surface. The shield rippled like a pond being struck by a stone and the screaming blaze hurtled onward.

"Oh God," she whispered.

As soon as it had passed inside the shield, the noise became deafening. Villagers stopped in their tracks and turned to face it. Two more incandescent streaks rushed through the shield.

Then another transparent barrier appeared in the sky, a deep orange hemisphere between the ground and the blue shield. Ear shattering blasts rang out as dozens of impacts slammed into it but were absorbed.

The first missile smacked straight into the top of the tower. For a brief moment she could see the molten outline as one side was melted away before the remaining metal collapsed. The fireball skidded off and spun into a nearby field.

The next two arrowed into one of the makeshift lodgings. The heat washed over her as they shrieked overhead. The rush of air whipped her hair around her face. A chorus of sickening screams split the night air. Keller watched in horror as two poor souls ran out of the gaping hole burned in the side of the building, flames clinging to them. They got a handful of paces before succumbing to the fire and falling to the ground, death rattles gurgling through their ruined throats.

*******

This day just kept getting worse. McKay sprinted inside and slid to a stop, ignoring the sharp pain in his side. He had seen enough Wraith weapons fire to know that it wasn't them raining destruction down on the city. If it wasn't Wraith, then it was another space-faring race. It seemed unlikely that yet another people they had never met would happen to turn up right at this moment. That left the builders of the city. The Assessor said he would be tested.

_Oh no._

If this was part of the trial then the shield around the city most likely wouldn't protect them. McKay concentrated, he had to establish exactly what was about to fall on his head. The air around him shimmered and a hologram of one of the missiles surrounded him. It looked like a coil of living fire, writhing and vicious. How was that even possible?

_Concentrate._

What could you do to defend against projectiles? Shoot them down or block them. Somehow he doubted firing interceptors at fireballs would be effective. So he needed another shield.

"Shield, yes, yes, yes. Good," he muttered. "This place already has one shield, the equipment is all there."

The hologram around him changed. He stood in the middle of a projection of the city, fireballs fell around him, orange arcs showing their trajectory. He looked down at the points they were going to land on and saw the Fibonacci spiral mapped out on the city. Someone was playing with him, with all of them. Several arcs started to flash red and an alarm sounded.

_Concentrate._

A shield. All it had to do was absorb the heat. Clearing his mind he focused on a shield to do exactly that. An orange hemisphere appeared around the level of his knees. It was too late. Some had gotten through.

_Oh no._

The beeping of the alarm grew frantic and in a detached way he realised one of the fireballs was about to strike the tower itself. It took him a second to process the danger and then he stepped toward the wall. The impact flung him to the ground. The wall gave way before him and he crashed into the smooth surface outside, jarring every bone in his body.

The night outside was suddenly much hotter than it had been. McKay's head swam as he staggered upright and surveyed the carnage in front of him. Keller had immediately sprung into action, directing the village folk to carefully move the injured to the makeshift infirmary. The ringing in his ears faded as he walked toward her, a few of those sprawled on the ground in front of him were beyond her help.

More than a few. The ghastly tableau in the wreckage of the building nearly made him retch and he stumbled back, gulping down air. The stench of burning flesh hung in the air. He realised vacantly it wasn't the first time he'd encountered it in Pegasus. Mastering himself, he turned back. Charred bodies littered the area. One or two had been practically vaporised but others were relatively untouched, save where a tongue of flame had boiled the flesh away down to the bone in a narrow chasm.

"Are you okay Rodney?"

He looked up at the sound of her voice and nodded mutely, eyes lingering on the dead. Above them the shield continued to ripple and flare as fireballs splattered into it with deafening gong-strike noises. Pockets of steam rose into the night as the heat from the blasts was dissipated.

"I was just a second too slow," he said, looking down at the mangled corpses. "Just a _second!_"

"You did this!" bellowed Leskit, brandishing a shaking finger at him. "You brought this down on us!"

"No, he didn't," said Keller firmly, calmly turning to Leskit. "We're all victims here and who do you think it was that got that shield up in time to save the rest of us?"

Leskit made an inarticulate grunt of furious disapproval but said nothing as Elworth approached and laid a hand on his shoulder. He shot McKay, standing despondently, a last withering look before shrugging the Elder aside and storming off.

She stood beside him and joined him in surveying the fallen. "It's not your fault," she said. "We would all be dead if you hadn't been there."

"No, Leskit's right," he said bitterly. "We wouldn't even be here if I hadn't been obsessed with finding out the secrets of this place. I've done it again, never stopping to think about what might happen."

"_Listen,_" she said softly, stepping around to face him. "You can't blame yourself for something you didn't intend. There's no way you could have known this would happen. The Rodney McKay I know doesn't stand around feeling sorry for himself, he figures out a solution and then tells us all how exceptionally clever it is."

McKay gave her a half annoyed look before he realised she was joking with him. He nodded once and then again, more forcefully, and set off to the tower, which had already started regenerating.

"Jennifer?" he called, pausing.

"Yeah?"

"Er, thanks for, you know..." he trailed off, waving his hands.

"Any time," she said, smiling.

McKay nodded again and walked away, muttering to himself.

*******

A large contingent of Wraith had set up an encampment at the gate. They fired off stunners in the vague direction of the event horizon as Sheppard flew the jumper through. Expecting as much, he banked sharply to the left as soon as they emerged and with the jumper cloaked, the Wraith soon lost interest in firing at nothing.

To be on the safe side, he took the jumper in an arcing course, leaving plenty of room between them and the Wraith on the ground.

"How close will you need to be?" he asked.

"Distance should not be a problem," said Zelenka. "But it may take a while to match his frequency."

"I'll take us overhead, get a look at what the situation is on the ground."

Sheppard guided the jumper into a shallow climb, pleased to see there were no darts visible to the eye or the jumper's sensors. The view he saw as he approached the village was not what he had expected.

The blue bubble of the shield covered the landscape, casting a strange neon light in the dark valley. Flaming missiles rained down on it from above. Beneath the blue surface he could see explosions rippling across another shield and below that, the unfamiliar skyline of a city that had not been there six hours earlier.

"_Ježišmarija!_" exclaimed Zelenka.

"I'm not exactly sure what you just said," said Sheppard. "But I think I agree with you."

Zelenka went into the rear of the jumper and began to fiddle around with the laptop he had hooked up to the crystals in the open panel.

"Give it a try now," he said.

"McKay, this is Sheppard. Come in."

A crackle of static played through the jumper's speakers.

"Hmm. One moment."

He swapped two crystals and nodded at Sheppard.

"McKay. Can you hear me?"

"Sheppard?" came a distorted McKay's voice.

Zelenka adjusted a few more settings.

"That should be better," he said.

"What the hell is going on Rodney?" said Sheppard.

"I wish I knew. I was looking around in the ruins and the whole damn city just regenerated all of a sudden. I've never seen anything like it."

"You're under attack," he observed.

"I had noticed. There's this hologram stalking me. Some sort of throwback from the makers of this place. He keeps saying we're on 'trial'."

"What?"

McKay sighed. "I really don't know what's going on. That rain of fire just started up out of nowhere. Nearly wiped us off the map."

"Is Keller with you?"

"Yes, she's here. Busy treating some injuries."

Zelenka came to the front of the jumper. "Who do you think built this city Rodney?" he asked.

"Oh not you again!" exclaimed McKay.

"I'm sorry," said Zelenka, confused.

"I don't mean you, Radek. I'm being stalked by a reprobate kid. I told you to go away! And _stay_ away this time!"

Sheppard chortled at his friend's ire.

"I heard that Sheppard! Look, I really have no idea who lived here. The technology is incredible though, easily a match for Ancient and makes the Wraith look like, well, like us I suppose. Whoever they were, they were a bunch of sadists, this hologram they left has got it in for me."

"Listen Rodney," said Sheppard. "We're working on rescue plans but we don't have much so far. To be honest I hoped you would have something. No ideas on how to shut off the shield?"

"Not so far. I'm keeping busy staying alive."

"Sit tight for now," he said. "We're going to get a handle on the Wraith forces on the ground and then head into orbit and see what they're doing up there. Sheppard out."

*******

McKay watched the jumper leave the map of the valley and sighed. It was good to know they were out there. Despite less than a day passing since they had been trapped inside the shield it seemed a long time since he had seen the others.

Deciding it had been a very long day and he was entitled to some respite he focused his mind and grinned as a chair moulded out of the floor.

He sighed again, as he sat down, and resumed his search for a way to circumvent the shield.

"You have done well, Rodney McKay," said the Assessor.

McKay jumped upright as the Assessor flickered into view.

"Your ability to adapt is impressive," it said.

"You're _enjoying_ this, aren't you?" he snapped. "Twenty-three people just got killed. There are children out there without parents. For _what?_"

"The galaxy is in the balance," it said. "Much must be sacrificed."

"You said I was being tested," he shot back. "What do they need to be involved for?"

"You told them to enter the city. They are your responsibility."

McKay was silent. The truth of the words stung at him. He sat down but with his mind having wandered at the sudden interruption, the chair had faded away and he found himself sprawled on his back. "You did this," he said, glaring up at the Assessor. "Not me."

"Regardless," it continued as he re-imagined the chair and got up. "You have passed the first stage. A new phase is beginning."

McKay straightened up. The Assessor faded out of view. A new phase couldn't be good news. Frowning he called up the overhead display of the city. Sporadic explosions flecked the shield but there didn't appear to be anything new falling towards them.

What else could be coming their way? With the level of technology displayed in the city there was practically nothing he could rule out. Earthquake? Plague?

Panicking, he grabbed his radio.

"Jennifer?" he said.

"What is it Rodney?" she asked, detecting the nervousness in his voice.

"I've just had another visit from my best friend, the Assessor," he said. "Something new is about to happen but I don't know what. Keep an eye out for anything unusual. I'll let you know as soon as I find out what's happening."

McKay took a deep breath. The answer was never to guess, he could work this out. The city's sensors were sophisticated enough to detect a lot of anomalies. Thinking hard he called up a map of the city and focused on any unusual readings. Six red dots blinked around the city. Five were in a loose cluster in the region the villagers had occupied. One was in the middle of the map. In the tower. Right behind him.

Rising from his chair, he spun around and grabbed hold of his sidearm, uncomfortably aware his P-90 was resting against the wall. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck as he stared at the empty room. There was nothing to be seen or heard. Could the sensors be mistaken? Or was he being deliberately deceived?

McKay backed up, focusing on repositioning his holographic display in front of him. There was definitely a strong reading, consistent with the mass of a humanoid right in front of him. Keeping his eyes trained on the hovering screen he strafed to the wall to pick up his P-90.

His heart pounded in his chest as he desperately searched for some sign of what was there. He heard something step behind him and flung himself out of the way as a blade scythed past where he had stood. It was wielded by a tall figure, obscured with a black robe. McKay sprayed a burst of bullets towards it but almost immediately it had shimmered and vanished as if moving out of phase with the world around him.

McKay looked up at the screen and saw the red dot in the same position he had first seen. He turned and made for the wall in front of him but it remained static. He rapped it with the P-90 but it remained solid.

Sweat formed on his brow as he spun again, trapped in the tower that suddenly seemed uncomfortably small. A sharp gasp escaped him as the light suddenly snapped out. His finger squeezed the trigger involuntarily and he jumped.

Seconds dragged by as he stood in the dark, feverishly wondering if it was better to move around or stay still, if it was safer to radio for help or keep silent, if he should fire at random or wait for a noise.

"Your hesitation is weak, Rodney McKay," said the Assessor, looming out of the darkness suddenly.

The hands that turned the gun toward it were shaking with terror and adrenaline. The hologram gave off a faint glow in the dark. Enough for anything else in the room to see him by.

He spun again, light-headed and desperate as he sought in vain for a warning.

"None of your team would be so easily bested," the Assessor leered from behind him. "What would they say to see you here, terrified and pitiful?"

McKay spun again, trembling with the anticipation of the attack he knew was coming but couldn't prevent.

"But then," the artificial voice continue. "They already know that, don't they?"

The strike was sudden and powerful. The gun jerked from his hands as pain exploded in his back. White fire shot through his nerves as a blade tore into him with enough force to send him staggering forward. He cried out in agony as it was wrenched out.

McKay fell to his knees, staring in shock as the hand he pressed to his back came back dripping with blood, silver in the faint light of the Assessor's projection. A tall, faceless black figure passed in front of him and slid from view. Gasping in agony he reached for his radio, a surge of pain shot up his back and as he collapsed to the floor, the light once again faded, leaving him bleeding in the dark.

* * *

**Author's Note :** A thousand thank yous to you, the reader, for sticking with me to this point. I hope you have found this story entertaining and enjoyable. Special thanks to the kind people who have left reviews.

Please let me know what you think of this or any other chapter. All suggestions, criticisms and thoughts are useful and gratefully received.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer :** Stargate Atlantis and all articles of the Stargate franchise are owned by MGM, not me.

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**Chapter Seven**

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**

The injuries were like nothing Keller had seen before, even in the Pegasus galaxy. From the split-second view she had got of the impact, it seemed that the fireballs were almost like fine strands of fire wrapped into a sphere. That would go some way to explaining the wounds on the survivors.

Wherever the lashes of fire had touched them, their bodies had simply melted away beneath the contact. Some of them had been luckier than others. As she had looked for survivors she had seen a couple of people lying prone that looked untouched, until she had got close enough to see the thinnest of gouges slicing across the line of their foreheads as they lay next to each other. The expressions of shock and fear hadn't had time to fade from their faces.

Others had suffered similar but shallower gashes. Two or three had critically damaged internal organs. One woman's femur had been completely severed, her leg almost hanging by skin alone.

Once the survivors had all been moved to the infirmary she summoned stasis chambers out of the walls. There were too many people perilously close to death for her to try treating them all at once and the temporary respite gave her a welcome opportunity to think.

The wounds were so regular, so precise. Whatever the fire had touched had been vaporised but there was almost no damage to surrounding tissue. The inside surface of each laceration that had been exposed was seared such that there was no internal bleeding. Keller knew nothing about space weaponry but she knew the human body extremely well. Such controlled damage would be impossible to achieve unintentionally.

That didn't make sense though. Why design a weapon to attack targets from orbit and then severely limit its destructive power?

A sudden pounding on the wall curtailed her musings.

"Dr. Keller! Dr. Keller!"

The wall opened as she stepped toward it, framing the frantic figure of Morlena. Tears streamed down the young girl's face.

She opened her mouth to speak and her voice caught as she sobbed. She stumbled into the room and thew herself at Keller.

Keller knelt down to hug the distraught child.

"What is it Morlena?" she said, gently stroking the girl's back.

"I saw it!" she said between heaving breaths. "Saw it, wanted to help, so scared, saw it all."

"What did you see?" Keller urged.

"Blood-" she sniffed. "Lots of blood, in the dark, the tower, it stabbed him. Bleeding, the floor, it-"

"Morlena," Keller said, in a voice that shook. "Something stabbed Rodney?"

Morlena nodded solemnly, eyes wide and reddened.

Keller straightened up and briskly crossed the floor to retrieve her sidearm and her pack. "What was it?" she called to Morlena over her shoulder.

"I do not know," she said, shaking her head. "It was dark, I could only see the projection that he spoke of."

"Go and find Elworth and stay with him," she said. "Don't worry, I'll go and help Rodney. He'll be fine."

After Keller made sure Morlena was on her way she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before raising her gun and sprinting for the tower.

The wall dissolved into the familiar arch as she approached. McKay lay on his back, ashen-faced. Blood pooled beneath him and his P-90 was beside him on the floor. Keller controlled her instinct to immediately tend to her patient and stood back, carefully surveying the interior of the tower. She strafed a short way around the outside to confirm the room was empty before she entered.

"Rodney, can you hear me?" she asked as she knelt down beside him.

He mustered a groan in response but his eyes opened.

"Tell Sheppard he was right about this mission," he muttered.

Keller smiled at him as she reached for gauze to pad the wound.

There was a blur of motion. McKay sat bolt upright and pushed her down with his left hand. A gunshot rang behind her back and something clattered to the floor behind her.

McKay lay back, grimacing in agony. Keller looked round to see a figure in a black cloak collapsed on the floor.

"Sorry about that," he hissed between clenched teeth. "I knew it was still there. I was-," he winced. "I was worried if I warned you it'd attack again."

"No problem," she managed as she got up, he was surprisingly forceful when he wanted to be.

She slipped on some latex gloves and carefully rolled him onto his stomach to inspect the wound. "Is it... is it bad?" he asked, breath coming in sharp heaves from the pain.

Keller gently probed the wound and peered closely. "It's not life-threatening," she said.

"Really? Are you sure?" he queried. "I mean, could it be infected or-"

"You're going to be fine, Rodney," she assured him. "Trust me."

"Oh thank God," he sighed. "I really thought I was... I thought that was it."

"You're actually quite lucky," she said, after another close inspection.

McKay grunted in disbelief.

"I mean you're lucky it didn't hit anything important."

McKay grunted again. "What about _me_?"

"You know what I mean," she said, punching his shoulder lightly. "It's going to hurt a lot but once I stop the bleeding you'll be fine."

She cut away his shirt and padded the wound.

"This one _is_ going to scar, I'm afraid."

"Chicks dig scars, right?" he said, hopefully.

"Right," she said, smiling as she wrapped a bandage tightly.

"How did you know-ow!" he exclaimed as she applied pressure to his back. "How did you know I was in trouble?"

"Morlena saw what happened and warned me."

"Thank God for annoying kids," he muttered.

"Are you dizzy or nauseous?" she asked as she checked his pulse and pressed her hand against his forehead.

"No, not really," he said. "Just in a whole lot of pain."

"You don't seem to be in shock and the bleeding is stopping already," she said.

"Shock? Are you kidding me? After all the things that happen to me in this job? I can't believe I ever let anyone tell me science wasn't where the action was," he scoffed indignantly. A frown creased his brow. "Wait, it is good that I'm not in shock, right?"

"Yes Rodney," she said. "You'll be fine. Let's get you sitting up."

She helped him up and into the chair, rechecked his bandaging and handed him a bottle of water from her pack.

"From the position of the wound I don't think he meant to kill you."

"Could've fooled me!" he spluttered.

"Did you see the wounds on the villagers?" she pressed. "Their injuries aren't what I expected. It's like the weapons were designed not to kill everyone they hit."

"The trials," he muttered. "They don't want to kill us, they want to test us."

"The trials!" he repeated and scrambled to his feet.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, stepping in front of him.

"There were more of them," he said. "They could be slaughtering people right now!"

She put a hand on his shoulder to stop him as he moved to leave again.

"And you need stitches and rest. Think you're in good shape to hunt them down?" she asked, eyebrow raised disapprovingly.

"It's what Sheppard would do," he mumbled absently, distracted by her warm grip on his shoulder.

"You're not Sheppard," she said.

"And you don't need to try to be," she added quickly, noticing he had taken it as a personal slight. "I'll do it."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Only one of us can stand without swaying," she pointed out, as she pushed him into the chair. "Look at it this way. You know when some idiot says they can do something and you know better than them that it's impossible?"

"Well yeah, every time one of what they loosely call scientists in Atlantis speaks pretty much."

"Exactly. That's what you'll be doing if you don't listen to me. The Rodney McKay I know isn't an idiot. Are you going to prove me wrong?"

"I guess not," he sighed, accepting defeat.

"Good," she said. "Now what will I need to find them?"

McKay adjusted a few settings on his Ancient scanner.

"Take this," he said. "It's not interfaced to any of the systems around here so it should still be trustworthy. They'll show up in red. But watch out, they phase in and out so you wont always be able to see them."

"What exactly are these things?"

McKay referred to the hovering holo-display.

"I don't know," he said, frowning. "The system calls them Lurkers. I don't know who or what they are, possibly some city robot defence or even preserved members of the builders that were frozen or stored in a dematerialisation buffer. Wait, here's something. Their phasing ability is limited. Their chance of collision varies proportionally to kinetic energy!"

"So a bullet will hit them?"

"Er, yeah. Exactly," he said. "But also, they probably can't hit you without being visible."

She arched an eyebrow. "Probably?"

"Almost certainly," he amended.

"Now," she said, grabbing his P-90 gingerly. "I'll be back shortly. I'd tell you that you should rest but somehow I don't think it would do much good."

McKay grinned sheepishly. "I'll keep an eye out on the map."

Keller nodded. "Seriously, don't move much or you'll start bleeding again. You'll need stitches when I get back."

McKay watched as she set off.

"Good luck," he called.

She turned and smiled at him and was gone.

*******

The Hive was dying. It was an odd thing to behold. Sheppard had seen a number of them destroyed in one way or another but this one was decaying before his eyes. Taking the jumper around to have another pass, he joined Zelenka in looking down at it.

Parts of the hull were rotting away, a deathly brown hue. The blue flames crackled along the inside surfaces.

"That really does look like an anti-Wraith weapon," Zelenka commented.

"Yeah," he replied. "It's strange though. We spent ages searching for anyone who could take the fight to the Wraith. Now it seems whenever we find anyone that can, they're just as interested in blasting us too."

Sheppard banked the jumper as they passed over the fallen Hive. On the horizon the bubble of the shielded city came into view. It continued to flicker with the impact of the falling projectiles.

"I think we should look for where those missiles are coming from," said the Czech.

"Agreed," he said. "I'll take us in from above though. I don't want to get too close in case they have a means of detecting us through the cloak."

"You think that's likely?"

"I really have no idea but I wouldn't rule it out."

Sheppard flew in the opposite direction from the city for a few minutes before ascending.

"My God," said Zelenka.

Sheppard just stared. In front of them a monstrous pillar reared from the planets surface.

"It's impossible," said Zelenka. "That's hundreds of miles tall."

Sheppard's gaze travelled up the column until it was capped by an equally enormous ring that stretched as far as he could see in either direction. Zelenka tapped a few controls and shook his head in bewilderment.

"It girdles the whole planet," the scientist said. "Another ring crosses it halfway around the planet. There are sixteen of those struts in total. I've never seen anything like this."

"Neither did Teyla when she was up here looking at the Wraith," he said. "This whole damn thing just appeared in a few hours."

"Look," said Zelenka, pointing at the encircling ring as Sheppard turned the jumper to fly alongside it.

Lines of fire lit up on the underside of the ring and ran together until they met and pulsed, sending fireballs downward.

"At least that's one mystery solved," he said.

"I think I have found an airlock," said Zelenka.

"Let's check it out," said Sheppard, eyes still fixed on the rain of fire in front of them.

*** * ***

The sun was still below the horizon as Keller moved away from the tower. Shadows crept across the city in the watery dawn light. The crops in the valley below the city swayed in a light breeze.

This was definitely not what she had thought the future would hold for her when she went to med school. Stranded on an alien world under attack from hostile forces and taking the responsibility to hunt down and destroy the enemy.

There were five of them, lit up as red dots on the scanner. It had sounded simple when she took the gun and set off. Just use the scanner to track and outmanoeuvre them and then shoot them from a distance.

Now that she was close to the first of her targets it seemed a lot less simple. McKay had warned her they could go out of phase so that she wouldn't see them but he had said a bullet would still hit them. But what if she missed? It had to be visible to attack her but it could get very close before it phased in. What would she do then?

_Don't think like that,_ she told herself.

The nearest dot was moving away from her. She hurried round a corner. The figure had its back to her, closing in on one of the villagers who stood at the end of the street, gazing at the last of the fading stars.

Keller scurried as close as she dared and took aim. A flash, a staccato rattle and the robed figure at the end of the street was falling to the ground.

The villager screamed and for a terrible moment she thought she had shot him but it was only out of fright.

"Get inside," she said, as she jogged up beside him. "There are more of these things in the streets. Tell everyone to stay inside. I'll let you know when it's safe."

The man ran off with grim terror on his face. Keller was left in the street with a gun in her hand and a dead body at her feet. The words "never do harm to anyone" ran through her mind. What choice had she been given though?

The hood of the robe had slipped over the head revealing the features of a young man of Aryan appearance. Blood dampened the back of his robe where the bullets had pierced his back.

Who was he? Where had he come from? He looked human. She knew he couldn't be but he wouldn't have looked out of place on Earth.

And she had just killed him. It had been so... straightforward. He? It? It was going to attack someone so she stopped it. It had to be done. Yet it was a life extinguished. _Possibly_ a life at least.

She shook her head and checked the scanner. Three were on the other side of the city. The other was a couple of streets away. _Damn_. He would have heard the gunfire. He would know she was coming. _Damn_.

He wasn't moving either. She couldn't afford to do the same, if she tried waiting him out the others could engage in wholesale slaughter, as far as she had seen they weren't wasting any time in heading for the populated area.

Clenching her jaw, she raised the P-90 and the scanner in front of her and doubled back to enter the street at the opposite end from where her adversary waited. Peering round the corner, she saw a villager lying on the ground.

Keeping a close eye on the scanner, she sidestepped into the street. She sidled over to inspect the prone figure. It was a young man. She remembered seeing him helping his grandmother walk up to the city the previous day. He was dead, throat sliced open. She knelt down and closed his eyes.

She slowly stood up and saw there was still no movement from her quarry on the scanner. It appeared to have gone inside one of the buildings on the left of the street. Keller inched forward and then a thought struck her. What if he didn't know she could track him? He would probably wait till she had passed and then follow her up the street.

She set off more quickly, steeling herself to turn and fire as soon as she saw movement on the scanner. She had cleared the street and turned the corner before he emerged from his hiding spot and came after her.

Keller fired as soon as the scanner showed he had rounded the corner but the red dot just kept moving. _Shit!_ Panicking, she sprayed more bullets in the direction of the invisible antagonist. She missed again.

Backing away she followed his movements as best she could with shaking hands as he strafed around her. Then the dot lurched toward her. She fired. He burst into view in mid-leap, knife extended toward her. She leant out of the way but he cannoned into her and the impact sent them both sprawling to the ground.

Keller lashed out wildly with her elbow and rolled away, training her gun on him. Then she saw he was dead. Distantly she noticed the blood on her own clothes as the roaring in her ears slowed and her breathing returned to normal.

Wearily she stood up. Three to go. With a certain amount of surprise she realised she had changed clips without thinking about it while she checked the positions of the last three. When did she get used to handling guns so comfortably?

A scream echoed across the city. Breaking into a sprint, she realised they had surrounded the infirmary. She slowed down as she approached the building, trying desperately to think of the best strategy to use. Surprise had just about got her through so far but there was three together now, she couldn't afford to miss even once.

One of them moved away into a street running parallel to the one she stood in. The other two maintained their position in front of her. She was weighing up her chances of taking them out when she realised what was happening. The third had begun sprinting along its street and would emerge behind her in seconds.

Keller raced towards a side street but one of the two was already heading for the other end. She was surrounded. Wheeling around to run back into the wider street, she lost her grip of the scanner and it fell to the ground.

She skidded to a stop and froze. How close were they? Could she risk turning her back to retrieve it? Blood pounded in her ears. The sun climbed above the buildings opposite and stung her eyes. She spun to her left and fired a volley of shots and was rewarded as a robed figure phased in and slumped to the ground. Backing up towards that figure she fired another salvo.

A second figure phased into view but she had only clipped his arm and it took another few rounds to put him down. Keller heard movement behind her and spun frantically. The P-90 was sent flying out of her hands as a knife swung into it and she was knocked to the ground as the robed man raised the knife and stepped toward her.

Keller fought the reflex to panic as her adversary bore down on her, knife outstretched. She forced herself to wait until he was about to strike and rolled to one side. A body cannoned into her back as she rolled. She tried to get up and her leg was pulled from under her.

Collapsing to the ground again, she saw the robed figure tussling with McKay, his face drawn tight with pain.

"Get the gun!" he hissed, as he struggled to keep the knife away from himself.

She turned to reach for it but their assailant shoved McKay aside and wrestled her back to the ground. Raw, ancient instincts took over and Keller struck and kicked and elbowed and clawed at her enemy. Blind rage overtook her and she sought desperately to crush and kill.

There was still a knife wielded against her though and a wild swipe nearly slashed her throat. McKay struggled over and grabbed the arm that held it. The three of them struggled viciously. McKay caught an elbow in the face and recoiled. Keller's knee connected with the Lurker's midriff. Her fingers closed around its hand, trying to prize the knife away.

Confusion reigned as limbs flailed and the three of them twisted and wrestled and then finally the knife was lodged in the robed figure's chest. Keller and McKay collapsed together on the ground. They lay next to the dead Lurker, shaking in relief and shock, as blood pooled beneath it and shone in the morning sun.

* * *

**Author's Note :** Originally I planned this chapter to end with Jennifer locked in mortal combat with the last Lurker but I decided that would be a cheap shot to introduce jeopardy. I'd be interested to know if people agree with that reasoning or not.

As ever I'd like to thank you for reading and invite you to leave a review to share your thoughts on this chapter.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer : **Stargate Atlantis and all articles of the Stargate franchise are owned by MGM, not me.

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

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**

Keller rubbed her forehead, staring up at the morning sky as her breath returned. She scrambled upright, muscles still trembling slightly from the fight and the shock. McKay groaned as she extended a hand to help him get up, which he did gingerly.

"You're bleeding again," she said, lifting his shirt to inspect the wound. "Didn't I tell you not to play the action hero?"

"Hey!" he said, wincing. "If my doctor gets killed, who's going to keep me alive?"

Keller turned her head to one side and gave him a half exasperated, half amused look.

"Let's get you patched up again."

She retrieved the P-90 and the scanner and carefully put an arm round his waist to help him walk as he staggered towards her makeshift infirmary.

Elworth approached them as they turned a corner. He took in the sight of McKay hunched in pain and the bloodstains on both their clothes and his eyes widened.

"Blessed ancestors!" he exclaimed. "What is happening here?"

"Cut myself shaving," McKay snapped. "What does it look like?

"Lurkers – that is, men, or things in the shape of men, appeared and attacked us," Keller cut in smoothly.

Elworth hastily scanned the area. "Are they still here?"

"No, we got them all," she said. They resumed their slow progress.

"Where did they come from?" the old man asked.

"Don't know," said McKay.

"Were they hiding among the buildings?"

"Don't know," McKay fumed. "I was standing working and then I got stabbed in the back. Don't know how or why."

"What do we do now?"

"First," she cut in again, "I need to treat this wound and the other people the Lurkers injured."

Others joined them in the street. McKay glumly saw Balorn striding towards them and rolled his eyes.

"Elworth!" Balorn bellowed. "Elworth! What is this outrage?"

"Use your eyes Balorn," he replied. "We are under attack in many forms."

"I did use my eyes, _Elder_," he spat. "I saw three of our people dead in the street as I came here. Now I see you standing doing nothing."

"What is it you would have me do?" Elworth rounded on Balorn furiously. "We are all powerless here."

"Let's leave them to it," Keller said in a low voice.

Rodney nodded and they went inside, angry glances and raised voices drifting after them. There were a number of injured villagers already there with anxious relatives and friends hovering nearby. Keller helped him over to a bed and then made a circuit of her other patients to assess the urgency of their injuries.

McKay lay back and closed his eyes. Now that the adrenaline had worn off he remembered just how long it had been since he'd slept. No time for that yet though. People to save and a sociopathic hologram to outwit. The key had to be in the way the city had been triggered. Something in the area must have remained undamaged and active. The problem would be finding it. Clearly the city systems were under the control of the Assessor and wouldn't help.

Someone squeezed his arm softly.

"Still with us?" asked Keller.

"Just getting my second wind," he said.

"Roll over so I can stitch this wound," she said. "Sorry for the delay but you got off lightly compared to some of the others."

"How are they doing?" he asked.

Keller paused as she removed the bandaging and cleaned the wound. "Rodney McKay, are you expressing concern about the wellbeing of strangers and unscientific peasants? This hero thing is really getting to you."

"It wasn't about being the hero," he said, gasping as she swabbed the gash with disinfectant.

"No?" she teased. "Decided to pack in the science game and take up street brawling?"

"No," he said. "I had to.. I couldn't.. I mean you were..-"

"I know," she said, patting his hand. "Thank you."

"All done," she said. She did the now familiar moment of concentration and a chair formed beside his bed.

"To answer your question, two dead and three with minor injuries," she said, sitting down. "Got any theories on how to get out of here?"

McKay rolled onto his back carefully and shook his head. "Not exactly. But I've got a few thoughts on how I can find out. We just need to stay alive long enough."

She gazed around the room. "Might not be so easy. There's going to be something else happening before long isn't there?"

McKay's gaze fell. "Probably," he nodded.

Keller stretched her arms out in font of her wearily and paused as she took in the bloodstains on her sleeves.

"I see blood all the time," she said. "But somehow it's different when you spilled it yourself."

McKay nodded. "If it's any comfort, I really don't think they were real."

"Thanks," she said, smiling sadly. "But I was prepared to do it with the thought that they might be."

"You did the right thing," he said earnestly. "It's not like you were slaughtering orphans on Christmas Eve."

She smiled bemusedly at him. "Some people wrestling with the emotional aftermath of killing for the first time might find your brand of reassurance puzzling."

"I appreciate it though," she said as he opened his mouth to protest.

They looked up as the sound of heated argument drew nearer. Elworth strode into the infirmary with a dozen of his people in tow, all talking loudly at each other.

"Can we _please_ keep this a discussion rather than a rabble?" said Elworth.

The jabbering of the throng came to a halt and the Elder smiled humourlessly. "Thank you," he said. "Now, Leskit, make your case."

"How many more of us must be slaughtered before we learn?" he said. "We must leave this place at once."

"We can't leave, the shield is penning us in," said McKay.

"Can you not remove it?"

"_Great_ idea. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Tell us then, man of _science_," said Leskit. "What should we do?"

"We stay calm and alert. I've got some theories on things we might try and our people are trying to help from outside."

"You suggest we wait for death to come to us?"

"I don't think these tests are designed to kill us," said McKay. "The Lurkers had knives, there are far worse things this city could have unleashed."

"More than a score of our people are dead!" Leskit bellowed. "What more proof do we need that they are designed to kill us?"

"What I meant was that with the technology here, it could easily have been worse," said McKay.

"Are you going to listen to this nonsense Elworth?" said Leskit.

"This is beyond our understanding," said Elworth. "I do not see a better option than to listen to them."

"We have already listened to them too long," said Leskit.

*******

Sheppard peered down at the planet through the long, unbroken windows that ran the length of the ring. The airlock they had docked in sat atop the ring, a spiral ramp led down to an endless corridor that they were tentatively following. The interior was crisp and clean, walls of black metal and seamless glass flowed into the horizon.

"Any theories on what this place is?"

"I just don't have a clue Colonel," said Zelenka, frowning heavily. "Nothing here makes sense. I can't even begin to understand how something like this could be built at all, certainly not how it could spring up in a few hours and even then, I don't see why anyone would _want_ to construct it. There's no advantage to making something like this."

"Another Pegasus mystery," said Sheppard, shaking his head wearily. "Forget the hows and the whys for now. We're in a huge corridor, what's at the end of it?"

"Hard to say," he said, consulting his Ancient scanner, "There's lots of energy readings in that direction. Possibly a control structure, possibly a generator but possibly something completely different to what I'd expect. I'm out of my depth in this place, even Rodney would be lost for words if he could see this."

A deep thrum vibrated along the corridor beneath them, accelerating away from them and rising in pitch until another blazing missile was dispatched from the underside of the ring. Sheppard watched it descend through the window.

"I'd say Rodney is going to be busy for quite a while. Let's find out what we can."

They continued the long walk along the corridor. Sheppard noted as they walked that it truly looked like one solid construct, there were no seams, no rivets, nothing to suggest this magnificent space architecture had not been been sculpted perfectly from a huge block of marble.

The corridor eventually opened out into a rounded room, above the nearest of the colossal pillars that rose from the planet. Zalenka spotted a terminal against one wall and quickly busied himself studying it.

Sheppard was left to look around. There was a raised circle set in the centre of the room which he waved his P-90 over a couple of times experimentally without any response. Once again he found himself drifting over to a window to look at the vast structure spanning the planet. It made him wonder, did its creator try and fail to stop the wraith, even with their overwhelming technology? Or did they decide not to even try?

"Colonel, I've got something," said Zelenka. "The main controls for the whole system are in the city. Probably to retain control if this ring were boarded. I can't shut the weapons off but I think I can block the control signals from the planet surface reaching here, which will do the same thing."

"Do it."

A crackling drew Sheppard's attention to the middle of the room. A column of blue light blazed from the centre circle. Spots danced in front of his eyes as the light faded. An old man stood where the light had been.

"Well now," he said. "We_ are_ in trouble."

*******

"We have already listened to them too long," said Leskit. "All of this has happened since they came here. It will stop if we rid ourselves of them."

He darted forward and grabbed the P-90 from a table.

"Leave or I will have to kill you," he said, brandishing the gun at McKay.

"Leskit!" said Elworth. "What are you doing?"

"I don't suppose this would be a good time to explain the difference between correlation and causation, would it?" McKay muttered.

"Not the best time to get clever," Keller warned from beside him.

"Leave!" Leskit shrieked.

"Look genius, we already covered this. Shield. Outside. Impassible. None of us is going anywhere."

"_Rodney_," Keller hissed.

"Want to shoot me? Fine, go ahead."

Leskit bristled and stepped closer.

"Really not helping," she said.

"How do you think I got this hole in my back?" McKay said, himself stepping closer to square up to Leskit. The effect was somewhat ruined by his pained hobble.

"We're suffering just as much as you are. We want to get out of here just as much as you do. Shooting me achieves nothing, it just means you wont have my help to try and get out of this."

"Rodney is right," said Keller. "He's been in tough situations all over the galaxy, he's the one we need to get out of this. Please just let us help you."

Leskit fired. McKay closed his eyes instinctively. When nothing happened he assumed Leskit had missed and opened his eyes.

The bullet was hovering right in front of him. Gulping, he stepped back as Elworth wrested the weapon out of Leskit's hands and haded it to Keller.

"Guess I'm not done yet," said McKay weakly. "Now, unless anyone else wants to shoot me I'm going to go and work on getting us out of here."

McKay spun and hobbled away, ashen faced.

"Leskit, you and I are going to talk," said Elworth, grabbing his arm and marching out of the infirmary.

Keller watched them go and turned back to the remaining people. "Show is over," she said. "If you're not a patient or family, go and be somewhere else."

At last she was left in something approaching peace and she checked on the condition of her patients. Remarkably none of them were in critical condition, those that hadn't been killed outright were in pretty good shape.

She had also made progress with Lorel and Arvan. After mastering the city's neural interfaces she'd been able to use the sensors that seemed to be everywhere to examine their bodies in detail. From that information she'd been able to pinpoint a bacterial infection lurking in their brains and had administered an anti-biotic.

She was in the middle of checking his vitals when Arvan opened his eyes and groaned.

"Can you hear me Arvan?" she said.

"Yes," he mumbled. "Lorel?"

"She's fine too," she said. "She hasn't woken up just yet but her body is healing."

"And Morlena?"

"She is... she was here," she said. "I'll get Rodney to find her."

Keller grabbed her radio.

"Rodney, you there?"

"Yep. Something wrong?"

"Can you locate Morlena? Her dad's awake and she's not here."

"Yeah sure. She is...Hmm, she's over on the east side of the city. Wandered off exploring again. Want me to go get her?"

"I'll meet you and we'll both go. Best to be cautious in this place."

"Alright."

Keller checked all her patients were stable and set off to the tower again. She met McKay and they headed followed the directions on the Ancient scanner. He abruptly looked at the sky.

"The fireballs have stopped," he said.

"So they have," she said. "Is that a good sign?"

"I seriously doubt it," he said, face grim. "This isn't going to be good news."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "She's probably exploring like you said."

"Yeah, maybe."

She was sitting, propped up against a wall holding her side with bloodstained fingers when they found her.

"Oh God," said McKay.

They rushed to her side, Keller rapidly searching her pack while she examined Morlena's injuries.

"You'll be fine," said McKay, trying to smile reassuringly.

"Bleeding wont stop," Keller muttered.

"What? Why not?" said McKay.

"I don't know," she said. "Some weird toxin on the knife that stops coagulation maybe."

Morlena's eyelids drooped.

"Stay with us Morlena!" said Keller.

The girl grabbed McKay's hand and he took it reflexively. "That hologram hurt me," she said.

"You mean one of the men in robes?" he said.

"No, the first one, the Assessor."

"It doesn't matter," he said. "We just need to get you better."

Keller threw one wad of bandages away and pressed another to the open wound but the blood continued to pour. She shook her head worriedly at McKay.

"Morlena, your parents are fine now," she said.

"Thank you," she breathed.

"We'll take you back to them," said McKay.

Keller felt Morlena's thready pulse and bit her lip in dismay.

"It's okay Morlena," said McKay. "Everything is okay."

Her eyes closed and McKay felt her tiny hand go slack in his.

**

* * *

Author's note : **Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. All feedback and opinions much appreciated.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer : **Stargate Atlantis and all articles of the Stargate franchise are owned by MGM, not me.

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

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**

"Rodney."

Keller's voice drifted into his brain from far away. He stared unseeingly at Morlena as if in a trance.

"Rodney," she repeated.

It must have hurt. The wound he had received was agony and it wasn't...mortal. Yet she hadn't made any sign of discomfort.

Keller reached out and tenderly broke his grip on the young girl's hand. He rose and walked to the parapet that ran round the city.

The sun was approaching its zenith in the cobalt blue sky. Thick black smoke continued to rise from the pockmarked field. McKay found his mind wandering, contemplating the design of the weapons, the chemical properties of the atmosphere that made for such dense smoke, anything to distract himself.

Keller had moved to stand beside him, patting his shoulder and gazing out over the valley with him. They stood there in comfortable silence for some minutes.

"My niece is that age," he said.

Keller said nothing but nodded slightly, studying his face.

"I hate to sound like a teenager but this just isn't fair," he said bitterly.

"I know," she said quietly.

McKay sighed deeply and squared his shoulders. "Nothing is. No point whining about it."

"It's strange," she said, nodding. "Have you thought about why some people got superficial wounds and others were killed?"

"Yes," he muttered. "Everything's a test."

He turned, snapping his fingers. "She said it was the Assessor that attacked her. I just assumed it was a hologram but there's no reason why it has to be!"

He continued speaking rapidly as he walked awkwardly toward the middle of the city with Keller keeping pace. "This whole place is built of nano-machines."

"_Replicators_?" she asked in alarm.

"No, they're not independently intelligent and they have no goal to create copies," he said. "Think of them like a mechanical Play-Doh. It moulds together into the form of whatever is called for by its operator through the neural interfaces."

"Where are we going?"

"Infirmary. I need to get something."

"You've got a plan?"

"Oh yes," he said grimly.

McKay hobbled as far as the infirmary and then stopped, the grim determination drained from his face in place of tired horror.

"Her parents," he whispered. "How do I...What do I say?

"I'll tell them," she said.

He found himself unable to speak but nodded gratefully. As she went inside and walked across to Lorel and Arvan, he took a deep breath and walked as best he could to the other side of the room where his pack lay against a wall.

Straining his ears to listen to Keller, he extracted his laptop. What was it doctors learned to say at a time like this? Could anything ever make it any better? There was a muffled sob from Arvan and a series of heart-rending sniffs from Lorel. McKay fought to keep his own eyes clear as he left the information he needed and replaced his laptop.

Keller had quietly excused herself and given them some privacy when he walked across to talk to her.

"I uh, want you to know if I don't get through this, it's been an uh, honour."

"Don't talk like that," she said.

"I mean it," he said, setting his backpack against the wall. "I'll always be grateful to you for operating on my kidney and saving my life."

"No problem," she said levelly, managing to keep her expression neutral as he prevaricated.

"I only wish it that er, it could have continued," he said, grabbing the P-90. "Got what I need now. You better stay here and keep an eye on your patients."

He turned and left, making a beeline for the tower. It was once again an empty circular room when he entered.

"I know you can hear me!" he shouted. "Show yourself and let's finish this."

"As you wish," said a voice from behind him.

McKay spun to see the Assessor standing with a cruel smirk.

"You bastard!" he spat. "What are you?"

*******

The old man glanced from the bewildered expression of Zelenka to the wary gaze of Sheppard and shook his head, smiling wryly.

"If you were going to use that, you should have done it straight away," he said, nodding at Sheppard's casual grip on his P-90.

"We like to introduce ourselves before we start shooting," he said. "I'm Lieutenant-"

"-Colonel John Sheppard," the old man finished. "I know who you are. My name is Lestor and I am the last son of Danetheron."

"I don't mean to be rude but we're on the clock," said Sheppard. "Two of my people are down on the planet, trapped by some shield."

"Yes," said Lestor. "They are being assessed."

The old man nodded at the long window behind Sheppard. It had turned into a display screen. The city glimmered in the morning sun. Sheppard noted the plumes of smoke rising from blackened craters in the fields around the mound the city sat on.

"How and why?" Sheppard queried.

"Time is limited, let us proceed to your vessel," said Lestor. "I will explain as best I can on the way."

The old man strode off, leaving them to follow in his wake. Sheppard idly wondered how he knew which corridor to take without having appeared to check.

"We were a great race once," said Lestor in a tired voice. "We were the first to arise in this galaxy."

"Wait, you were here before the Ancients?" said Sheppard. "Lanteans that is. The information we found suggested there was no intelligent life in Pegasus before they arrived."

"Arrogant usurpers!" Lestor spat. "Condescending fools and reckless amateurs! What do they know of the origin of this galaxy? We were old when they were still running from their zealot brethren, we were ancient when they ran here to escape their plague and when they ran from here to escape the Wraith they had damned us to extinction."

He stopped in the middle of the corridor and sighed. He turned to face them and smiled wanly.

"Forgive my irritability," he said. "There was great tension between our peoples that lingers to this day, even when I am all that is left."

"Why is it that we have never heard of your people before?" said Zelenka as they resumed walking.

"You came to this world to search for us, did you not?"

"Yes – but it's been four years since we arrived on Atlantis and this vague clue was the first hint you existed at all."

"Interesting," he said. "I cannot speak for what happened after my people's fall but I can share what happened before it."

As he spoke the windows around them darkened and displayed a map of Pegasus. The image followed them along the walls as they moved.

"We arose first in this Galaxy. Though our natural form is not the one I appear to you in now. Our pre-spacefaring history is much the same as you would expect and of no particular interest to your situation but there is one important point. Our rate of technological progress was extremely slow compared to the humanoid races that followed."

"This planet was originally a dark and harsh place. The shortage of light and resources made it difficult for species to survive. Our physiology and brains reflected this. Yet bit by bit we advanced as a people to the point where we began to experiment with cybernetics. We were able to augment ourselves and became stronger and smarter."

"The Lanteans had arrived by then," he said. His eyes lingered on the moving display which was currently the familiar skyline of Atlantis and he sighed again. "They were brilliant in so many ways. But their wisdom did not match their genius and it came back to destroy them. The Wraith were just one byproduct of their folly but it was the one they couldn't evade."

"Are you saying the Ancients were responsible for the creation of the Wraith?" asked Sheppard.

"That wasn't in the history they left either? Doesn't surprise me, they were obsessively vain. They were not _directly_ responsible but it was their reckless application of their brilliance that resulted in the Wraith. At first we had good relations with them. As you have seen they gave us a Stargate. The tension started when they revealed their plan to seed the planets of this galaxy which showed no signs of life. We argued they should let life evolve naturally rather than impose their own vision but they were implacable. It was not just human populations they seeded. The Iratus bug itself was an experiment in eugenics which they grew bored with and forgot until it was much too late."

"We fought with the Wraith long before the Lanteans did. They could not feed from us but they waged war on us anyway. Whether for practice, for sport, or to prevent us being able to stop them at a later point, I do not know. They were not then as numerous as they were when they overwhelmed the Lanteans but we were outmatched."

"In our desperation we turned to the Lanteans for assistance but they would not help us. They had begun to dabble with ascension and they had taken to viewing all other species as a lower form of life. They said they could not interfere in our affairs. But for all their talk of superiority, they were consumed by arrogance and pride, they could not conceive that the Wraith would one day multiply to a point where they would be threatened. Our only hope for survival was to turn once again to augmenting ourselves. I was the Overseer of Science in the empire and I led the research programme. Within two years we had made amazing progress. An exponential cycle began of improving our intelligence with cybernetics and then developing more effective cybernetics. We were soon on par with Lantean technology, not hindered as they were with the distraction of worrying about ascension. The Wraith pushed us back planet by planet but by the time they laid siege to this world we were a match for them. We made this solar system into a graveyard – I believe you saw our weaponry in action."

Sheppard gazed in wonder as the image changed to show a vast Wraith fleet in ruins, drifting around the planets of the system.

"I'm guessing there's a twist to this story," said Sheppard.

"The price we paid for our advancement was high," said Lestor. "Too high. There was barely any part of our bodies left that was not artificial. The military faction especially became almost robotic. But the effects were not just physical. We became compassionless. The Wraith left us alone when they saw they could not defeat us. I proposed we should destroy them before they could regroup but the ruling council refused on the grounds that the Lanteans should have to deal with them. I argued we would be punishing the dozens of budding races that were evolving around the galaxy for no fault of their own but my people were adamant that they too were the Lanteans responsibility."

"Some years passed and we continued to advance exponentially, but a dread grew in my heart. Entire worlds were culled while we stood idle. I returned to plead my case with the council but they dismissed me from my position. Shortly afterwards I learned they had grown tired of waiting for the Wraith to punish the Lanteans and were planning to assemble a great fleet to subjugate Atlantis themselves. At that moment I could no longer deny that we had become worse than they had been."

"There were a few of us that saw the decay in our society and we sought to act before our race committed great crimes against the galaxy. We seized control of Danetheron but it was too late. The completed ships turned their weapons on the planet and all out war broke out."

*******

Keller watched McKay leave and crossed the room to search his backpack. Either he had finally lost his mind or he had been trying to communicate something to her but felt he couldn't say it aloud. He'd told her the city was comprised of nano-machines. It made sense that someone or something would be able to listen in to anything said in the city.

She rifled through his backpack, smirking despite the dire situation when she saw several packets of painkillers and a supply of food that would probably last a month. The only thing of interest she could find was his laptop.

It wasn't passworded. She was sure he wouldn't usually leave his computer unguarded. He must have wanted her to see something. She opened the last document he had edited and frowned. It was the familiar corkscrew of a DNA helix.

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Keller looked at the double strands as her mind raced. McKay wanted to tell her something. He'd felt it unwise to say it aloud or apparently to write it down. He'd have to have encoded what he needed to say but in such a way that she'd be able to decode it. She didn't know mathematical cyphers. He knew that. He would also know she had a good knowledge of DNA.

How could you encode a message in a helix? McKay had a mind capable of creating the most cryptic of cyphers but on this occasion he wanted her to be able to interpret it. In a helix there were four base pairs so to be able to represent each letter of the alphabet you would need 3 base pairs to represent one letter.

"This would have been a lot easier if I knew Morse code or something," she muttered under her breath.

How was she supposed to know which combination of base pairs represented which letter? She sighed again. He wanted her to be able to work it out so it would be simple. Deciding to assume he had used alphabetical order so that the base pairs 'AAA' represented the letter A and 'AAC' represented B she began to scan the helix and piece together the letters.

The first four read T-E-S-T. _Good start_ she thought. The task was made more difficult since she didn't dare write any of the message down for fear of the surveillance McKay had been trying to circumvent. It took her several minutes to decode the whole message.

_City is brilliant but limited. Cannot read minds. Does not know names of base pairs. This encoding is secure. Need you to find a beacon device directly under tower. Saw it when in caves. Believe it is master control device. It will look silver. Shut it down ASAP. I will distract Assessor._

Below the tower? Did he expect her to dig a hole? Keller left the infirmary and focused carefully on forming a tunnel. The ground in front of her opened to reveal a downward ramp and with some trepidation she started to walk down it.

At the bottom of the incline she found a spindly silver device, four or five feet tall. It rotated gently and gave off its own light. She concentrated on switching it off but nothing happened. She tried thinking of reducing its power and the device's rotation slowed to a crawl.

Around her the walls began to shake and a noise like a gong sounded repeatedly. She felt a disturbance behind her and darted forward as a blade whistled through the space she had been standing in.

Keller sprinted up the ramp she had came down, glancing back over her shoulder as the Lurker pursued her. She had gone about halfway when she noticed it was no longer following her. She turned to check and could see two or three more Lurkers, all restrained from moving up the ramp by an invisible force.

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**Author's note : **Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. All feedback and opinions much appreciated.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer : **Stargate Atlantis and all articles of the Stargate franchise are owned by MGM, not me.

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**Chapter Ten**

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"You bastard!" he spat. "What are you?"

"I am the keeper, the guardian and the assessor," said the Assessor.

"You're not a hologram," said McKay.

"No," it said. "I am not."

"So what is this really about?"

"The suitability of your race has been assessed. You are not worthy of inheriting the technology of Danetheron."

"Really?" said McKay in mock despair. "Did we fail a credit check again?"

"The filth of the Lanteans is all over you," it said, beginning to circle McKay "We will not tolerate another rabble of adolescent fools taking ascendancy in this galaxy."

"Say what you like about the Ancients," said McKay, strafing around the room to keep his distance. "They don't go around murdering children."

"They damned billions of us!"

"So now you slaughter farming villages to get revenge on them?"

"Enough," it said. "Your candidacy is terminated."

The gaunt figure lurched towards him and McKay fired. The gun jammed in his hands and he threw it at the advancing Assessor and dodged out of the way.

"Your primitive firearms are useless here," it said.

"Yeah," he muttered. "Figured that was a long shot."

The Assessor closed his fist and a gleaming orange blade grew out of it.

"You've got to be kidding me," said McKay.

A frantic dive let him evade the first swipe of the blade. He felt heat across his back as it scythed through the air above him. Pain shot through him as he landed awkwardly.

"Any chance of a timeout?"

McKay recoiled as the Assessor took another purposeful stride towards him before freezing. It took another faltering step, looking like it was wading through treacle, then stopped dead. Microscopic flecks began to peel away from the Assessor's skin and flew off. The tall figure dissolved into a swarm of particles and dropped to the floor.

"About time," said McKay as he got up, gritting his teeth against the pain in his back.

The ground trembled slightly as he left the tower. Outside the villagers were milling around in the street. Keller walked up a ramp that had appeared since he had last seen this part of the city and joined him as he walked over to Elworth.

"Time to leave," said McKay.

"Really?" asked Elworth.

"Really?" echoed Keller.

"I've got it figured out now," said McKay. "The key is the beacon. Without it, the nano-machines are inert. That's why the buildings are still here but the Assessor disintegrated, it couldn't maintain coherence as such a complex object."

"But the shield is still up," Keller pointed out. "How do we get out?"

"The shield is still up because the beacon isn't deactivated, it's just operating at a lower power level. There's still a generator down there somewhere. I'll go down and shut it off, you get everyone ready to move out. As soon as I can take care of the Wraith camped out at the gate, head for it and try to contact Sheppard."

"Your counsel is for us to abandon our world?" said Elworth.

"It's that or stay here with Wraith and lunatic machines, your choice," he said. "I for one want to get off this planet before anyone else tries to kill me."

Elworth nodded.

"We need to do this quickly," said McKay. "I don't know if the system will adapt."

"I will get everyone together," said Elworth.

"Sure this will work?" asked Keller quietly as the villager Elder bustled away.

"Not really no," he said. "Got no better ideas though."

They watched Elworth marshal his people in the street and walk towards them.

"Good work with the code and the beacon."

"Thanks."

"We are ready Dr. McKay," said Elworth. "I don't know how we can repay you for your help."

"You can build me a statue," he said. "Let's do this. Get everyone down to the edge of the shield. As soon as it goes down, get out of here."

"What about you?" asked Keller.

"Oh don't worry," he said. "I'll be straight after you. I can't wait to get out of this place."

McKay watched them go and join the crowd and turned to face the tunnel leading down to the heart of the city. He took a deep breath and started walking into the darkness.

*******

"Have you ever seen a civil war, Colonel?" asked Lestor.

"Not up close, no"

"Two adversaries standing upon a rope bridge over the abyss and flailing at each other with axes. They are so obsessed with killing their enemy they can't see they are destroying themselves. There was nothing I could do, we were hopelessly outmatched and the military faction could not be dissuaded. My last resort was a panic measure we had worked on while the Wraith laid siege to us. I had been developing a system to preserve our people by storing our consciousnesses deep, and I mean _deep_ under the planet surface. My team and I had developed a form of nano-technology with distributed intelligence, the theory being it could wait out the Wraith, using automated defences to keep the planet free from outside influences, and re-emerge when they were destroyed or vulnerable, moving us into synthetic bodies like this one. I chose a human form to make interaction with you more convenient."

They reached the airlock and boarded the jumper.

"We never finished the prototype but as the government closed in around us I turned to my old research and activated it. Part of the measure was a destructive energy wave, designed to wipe out ships in the system. That wave decimated our civilization, everything was destroyed but our knowledge was preserved along with the stored minds of the nearby people, no more than a hundred of us."

"You _killed_ your whole race?" asked Sheppard incredulously as they cleared the ring and started to descend to the planet.

"My people were dead already. Half of them had lost the spark of life, they were just machines. And I truly have no idea where their slaughter would have ended had they been allowed to progress unchecked. I regret having to do what I did but I am utterly convinced the alternative would have been far worse. As it was, all I had time to do was setup an AI to appear to visitors to the planet and test them, measure their race's level of advancement and moral worth. I wanted to be sure my people's technology would one day pass into the hands of people who would use it wisely, to pay for the grievous ill we did the galaxy by failing to help those we could."

"That's what's going on with my people?" said Sheppard. "Your AI is checking if they are worthy of inheriting your toys?"

"It's not quite that simple I'm afraid," said Lestor. "The AI does not work properly. When the government detected the energy build-up from the wave they hacked the planet mainframe. They tried to change my AI to release an army of robots to cleanse the galaxy of the Lanteans and those they beget. I had feared something similar so a failsafe was already in place, there is a beacon on the planet which regulates the operation of all the nano-machines. When they go outside its operational radius they become inert. This ensured they would be tied to the planet but unfortunately I was not able to prevent significant corruption to the AI that was left to test future generations. It will torment and ultimately kill your friends, bent on finding vengeance for a long-failed race.."

Sheppard guided the Jumper below the clouds and received a jolt of shock as they saw a barrage of missiles fan out from the city in all directions but after a fraction of a second he could see their trajectories were not towards them.

"We don't have much time," said Lestor. "This race is all but run. Dr. Zelenka, in a short time there are going to be four unmanned Wraith Hives in this system. You should return to Atlantis and make arrangements for recovering them. The Wraith on the ground will be eliminated by that salvo."

Zelenka turned to Sheppard who nodded. "Head back," he said. "We'll go get McKay and Keller out."

Sheppard set the Jumper down half a kilometre from the gate and Zelenka set off warily. They made the short trip to the valley in silence and set the Jumper down a minute's walk outside the shield.

"So, John," said Lestor as they made their way across the fields. "How do you feel in yourself? Is your life unfolding as you dreamed?"

"Excuse me?"

The old man turned to face him. "I know you think it's hopeless," he said.

"No I don't," Sheppard retorted. "You said you could shut this down."

"I don't mean getting your people out. I mean the fighting, the bickering, the mistrust. You think this galaxy is a lost cause, a drain that can't be plugged, sucking lives away like a black hole."

Sheppard smirked. "I think you've been in deep freeze too long. I'm not giving up on anything."

The old scientist fixed him with a piercing stare. "I burned my world to the ground. I know despair and I can see it in you."

"Look," said Sheppard. "I'm really grateful for your help but you've got it wrong and I really don't know what else to tell you."

"My mistake," he said. "I am pleased that I am wrong. Because if I had not been, it would be a very serious problem in the days to come."

They reached the shield.

"Here I leave you," said Lestor. "Some way around the circumference of the shield you will find the people of this planet fleeing toward the Stargate. You may be able to render assistance to them."

Lestor stepped through the shield and set off toward the city.

*******

McKay could not begin to understand how the strange silvery beacon worked. Clearly it had an important role in regulating the nano-technology of the city but it was such a bizarre construction he didn't have the first clue how this was achieved.

He walked along an adjacent tunnel into a room filled with a variety of strangely shaped pieces of machinery. There was no obvious control mechanisms or even indication of what any of them might be for.

This close to the beacon he was sure the neural interfaces would still work. His theory was confirmed by quickly picturing a map on the wall. An encampment of Wraith blocked the gate while ground patrols and sorties of darts were interspersed around the bubble of the shield.

McKay concentrated on the dots on the map representing Wraith and focused on triggering the city's missile launchers. A tremendous roaring grew around him as weapons surged toward the surface. They appeared on the map in a great mass of blue lines, forming arcs to their targets.

It really was a pity they wouldn't get to make use of some of this technology for their own systems. Then again, just getting out of the clutches of this technology would be an achievement in itself.

The Wraith were quickly overwhelmed by the onslaught of missiles. McKay turned his attention to the shield. The blue bubble on the map disappeared as he focused on shutting it off.

He stared at the map for a few seconds and turned to leave.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" said the Assessor.

"I'm ever hopeful," he said.

McKay checked the map over his shoulder and walked briskly towards the exit. He was halfway up the ramp before the Assessor warned him.

"As soon as you leave here, the shield goes back up."

He froze and grabbed his radio.

"Jennifer? What's the status on the shield?"

"It went off for thirty seconds but now it's back."

"Standby," he said. "I'll sort that out."

Turning to face the Assessor, he drew his sidearm and advanced warily.

"You know that wont work," it said.

"I think if that were true you wouldn't warn me," he said. "It's more fun for you if I'm surprised, isn't it? That's what you get out of this, that's why you wanted me to think I'd be able to escape. That's why you there's so few obstacles down here to stop me shutting the shield off, you want me to suffer as I watch everyone else get out while I'm stuck."

The Assessor stepped closer and McKay fired. The bullet hit around the chest. The Assessor recoiled backwards like a ragdoll. The shirt around the impact cracked like a pane of glass and specks of debris fountained out.

"Thought so," he said. "You've got less power now, don't you? Fewer tricks to play on the lab rat."

McKay walked back into the machinery room and shut the shield off again. He grabbed his radio.

"That should be it," he said. "Get everyone out."

"We're going now," she said. "Just out of interest, what happens if the shield comes back on when someone is half across?"

"Killed instantly, split in half," he said. "Don't worry, it shouldn't happen."

"Shouldn't?" she queried, aghast.

"Just a joke," he said. "You'll be fine."

"Why do you sacrifice yourself for these peasants?" asked the Assessor.

McKay watched the progress of the villagers on the map. "Doesn't seem like I've got a lot of choice," he said.

"Choices are manifold," it said, hanging back respectfully after being shot. "Even if you believe there is no way for you to escape, you do not have to let the others."

"You think I should keep everyone here to spite them?" he said. "What is this? If I go down I'm taking you with me?"

A handful of people remained inside the line of the shield. McKay watched them drift across slowly until they were all clear.

"We're all across," said Keller, over the radio. "You on your way?"

"Not exactly," he said. "If I leave the area of the beacon, the shield resets. I had to stay here to let you all get out."

"_What_?" she exclaimed. "How are you going to get out?"

"I can't," he said. "Game over. I always thought it'd end because some moron chef used lemon on my food, not in a cave with a geriatric android. Make sure they make that statue of me a good one. Solid gold preferably."

"There must be a way," she said.

"None that I can see," he said. "It's ok. It doesn't...Tell my sister that I wish... I wish I'd been a better brother."

"We're not going to leave you here Rodney," she said. "We'll figure this out."

McKay saw the last dot on the map change direction and start moving back towards the city. A sad smile crossed his face.

"I'm glad we got the chance to work together," he said. "Maybe things could have been different."

"Stop talking in the past tense," she said. "This isn't-"

"Goodbye," he said softly as he raised the shield and the radio went dead.

"You could have had her stay here to keep the shield down and let you escape," said the Assessor. "She would have agreed to do so."

"I'd rather she gets out than me."

"Why? You are the superior intellect, you are more valuable to your people. It would be the logical course of action."

"You protect the people you care about," he said.

"You are a disappointment, Rodney McKay," it said. "For a time I believed you were a man of science. In truth you are little better than the pitiful troglodytes you liberated."

"Sorry about that," he said. "I've been disappointing people all my life."

The Assessor straightened and once again grew the orange blade from his hand.

"And now, it ends."

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**Author's note** : Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. All feedback and opinions much appreciated.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer : **Stargate Atlantis and all articles of the Stargate franchise are owned by MGM, not me.

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**Chapter Eleven**

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The Assessor straightened and once again grew the orange blade from his hand.

"And now, it ends."

McKay brought his sidearm up and fired twice. One shot missed but the other smacked the Assessor in the cheekbone. Particles sprayed out of the Assessor's face as it crumpled against the impact.

"Do you think you have enough bullets to break enough pieces off to stop me being functional?"

Aim for the chest, Sheppard had always told him in their practice sessions, maximise your chance of hitting the target. He somehow doubted the standard rules were as effective when trying to shoot mechanical enemies.

He backed up and fired another shot. The Assessor staggered and suffered more damage. McKay scrambled into the beacon room, ducking as a swipe from the Assessor came uncomfortably close. But there was nowhere to run, no solution to pull out of a hat. There was only the steel trap, pinned in a corner with a merciless predator.

McKay squared his shoulders, he wasn't going to die huddled on the floor. He stood as tall as he could manage with the searing pain in his back and started firing at the Assessor. He peppered its chest with holes and its torso snapped backwards at the waist and froze.

In disbelief he stared at the contorted form, there was no way that should have been enough.

"Dr. McKay," said a voice from the shadows. "I am pleased to meet you. My name is Lestor."

McKay's gaze flicked from the Assessor to the unexpected intruder.

"Oh don't worry about that," said Lestor.

Lestor stepped into the light and tapped what looked like a wristwatch. A blue cone of light shone from it and he pointed it at the Assessor, which disintegrated in the beam.

"I am truly sorry," he said. "When I set this city to sleep the Assessor was corrupted."

"You were one of the original race that lived here?" asked McKay.

"Yes I was," said Lestor. "I too was a scientist, once. Come, walk with me."

Lestor led him up the ramp to the city.

"This is not the original form of the city I once lived in," he said, looking around wistfully. "The devices in the village were left as lures for intelligent minds. The system dynamically spawns a city when it detects a possible candidate. I wish you could have seen the real capital in its noontide. This is just a broken reflection of its splendour."

They walked to the building Keller had used as an infirmary. It had been sectioned in two by a partition wall, behind which a makeshift morgue had been setup. Lestor shone another blue beam on it and carved a doorway.

"This was never what I hoped for," he said sadly as he gazed at the bodies laid out on the floor.

Another tap on his wrist device and a blinding white cone of light shone on the floor. Lestor slowly scanned it over the nearest body, an old man that had been stabbed in the Lurker attack. Colour started to return to the pallid skin.

"You've got to be kidding me," exclaimed McKay.

The old man took a deep heaving breath and his eyes opened.

"I don't suppose you could tell me how that works, could you?" asked McKay.

"The technology of my people has done you enough injury as it is," said Lestor.

"It doesn't look like it's doing much injury," McKay observed. "Quite the opposite."

"That is how it begins," said Lestor. "That is how it _always_ begins. Be warned that not all ends will be as fortunate as this."

Lestor continued to resurrect the people in the morgue with McKay looking on in amazement and trying to explain as comfortingly as he could to the people what it was that had happened to them.

"I was _dead_?" asked one old woman.

"Yes," he said. "Isn't it fantastic?"

"You think it's fantastic that I was dead?"

"No! It's fantastic that you're not."

Someone hugged his leg from behind and he turned to see the smiling face of Morlena.

"You saved me," she chirped happily.

"It wasn't me," he admitted. "The man with the magic watch over there is the hero here."

"He's not mine," she said.

"Your people are returning," said Lestor. "They have noticed the shield is down. There is something we must do before they arrive here."

"I need to go," said McKay. "Your parents are going to be so happy to see you."

With an air of great conflict McKay stooped and hugged Morlena, eyes shifting around as if scanning for witnesses.

McKay followed Lestor to the tower. It had taken on a markedly different appearance in the presence of one of its founders. Streams of information flowed in three dimensions around the room like ropes of ever shifting letters forming a web.

"How can you process this much information?" asked McKay in wonder.

"Our brains are very different," said Lestor. "Here, you will find this better."

The strings of characters rearranged themselves on to the walls of the towers. A model of the solar system glimmered in the middle of the room. Four Wraith Hives were slowly approaching the planet.

"I am launching weapons to kill every Wraith on board those vessels without damaging the ships themselves," said Lestor. "If your people are expedient, they will be able to seize those ships before they are reclaimed."

Four blue orbs appeared in the three dimensional display in front of McKay, racing up from the planets surface.

"That's... very nice of you," he said.

"I ask that in return you defend the welfare and sovereignty of the people of this planet," said Lestor.

The orbs reached the Hives, where each struck the Hive a blue glow spread across the surface of the ship.

"No chance of giving us a few of those is there?"

"I am afraid not," said Lestor. "As you have seen the technology of my people is vulnerable to corruption. It is time we truly went to our rest. I did however leave some information on your computation device. I wish I could be of more direct help but trust me when I tell you that advancing too quickly is an extremely perilous thing."

They stood in silence, watching the Hives become enveloped.

"One thing I could do for you is remove the scar you bear," said Lestor.

"I uh, think I'll keep it," he said.

"As you wish," said Lestor with a knowing smile.

"The technology you have is amazing though," said McKay. "I thought of myself as a scientist but compared to the things you understand I'm like an astrologer making patterns out of white noise."

The old man laughed. "If you had been born in my stead it is you that would have great knowledge. But even then it is the realisation that your knowledge is always limited and the thirst for more that is truly important. That is what makes you a scientist."

The Wraith ships had regained their usual colour. "They are now free of Wraith," said Lestor. "I will tell you this, more valuable perhaps than any technology I could give you, science is a noble thing but it is not the measure of a man. A man who is not prepared to die for anything is only a slave. You have shown courage and a willingness to sacrifice yourself to help others that does you great credit. I am not the only one who has seen that."

McKay was silent for a long moment as he mulled Lestor's words.

"It didn't matter what I did here, did it?" he asked. "You were always going to revive these people."

"On the contrary," said Lestor. "If you had not kept the Assessor at bay long enough for your friend Sheppard to wake me, none of this would have been possible. That alas is what has happened in the few occasions Danetheron has woken from its slumber in the past. Also know this, virtue is never futile, even in a futile cause. You have learned about yourself and others have learned about you. Go home and be proud. When I designed this desperate test, it was people like yourself I hoped would come across it."

McKay extended his hand and Lestor shook it warmly and nodded. He left the tower and walked into the city which was once more full of people.

"Rodney!" called Keller.

She hurried over with a wide smile on her face and thew her arms around him in a tight hug.

"You're alive," she said as they broke apart.

"Everyone is," he said. "I can barely believe it."

Sheppard strolled up from a conversation with Elworth and slapped McKay on the arm. "You owe me one," he said. "Good work though."

A short time later McKay found himself boarding a Jumper to fly back to Atlantis. He turned to scan the city a last time before he left and saw Lestor standing by the tower, staring impassively.

"Go now with the blessing of Danetheron," said Lestor, his voice suddenly audible inside McKay's head. "But beware, Rodney McKay. To end the Wraith is to shatter the order that has prevailed in this galaxy for milennia and no man can say where the pieces will fall."

*******

McKay scribbled several symbols on the white board in his lab and stood back to examine his work. He flung his marker down and groaned when doing so set off a painful twinge in his back. He couldn't get the equations to balance. The information Lestor had given him was one part tantalising, nine parts frustrating.

The most staggering aspect to the information he had given him was the amount that he clearly hadn't given him. Every spare bit of his laptop's memory had been used in conjunction with an unusual and highly effective compression technique he'd never seen before. Even so, the data was riddled with hints and pointers on how to learn far more than was conveyed directly.

There was a discreet knock behind him. He hadn't heard the door open but Keller had evidently come in and closed it. She was now standing, leaning against the closed door with an amused look at his frenzied work.

"You busy?" she asked.

McKay had a sudden moment of clarity, remembering the words Lestor had said to him and realising that however busy he was, there were more important things than science and work.

"No," he said. "Not at all."

"What you working on?" she said, walking over to take a seat beside him.

"Looking through the stuff Lestor gave me," he said with a sigh. "Can't make any sense of it."

"You will," she said.

"Thanks," he said. "And why are you still up when all but us obsessive workaholics with no life are in bed?"

"Can't sleep," she said. "Still got too much adrenaline from all that happened out there."

"Yeah it was intense."

"How did you know I'd be able to decipher your message?" she asked.

"You're as smart as anyone here," he said. "I knew you could figure it out. I panicked though. I couldn't think of a good way to get you to check my laptop without giving the game away."

"Hey," she said, reaching out and squeezing his hand. "You did fine. You got us out even when you thought you couldn't get out yourself. That's amazing."

"I had to," he said. "So many people have died since we got here. They always expect me to come up with a plan. I'm the one that has to figure it out. McKay always says it can't be done but then he has a brainwave and does it..."

He trailed off and looked at the floor. "But sometimes I can't. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm not always smart enough. People die and whenever they do..."

"You feel that you should have done better," she finished, reaching out to gently tilt his chin so his gaze returned to eye level.

"Yes," he said in a small voice.

"How do you think I feel?" she asked. "There's thousands of people dying because I can't figure out a way to stop the Hoffan drug being lethal."

"Most people don't understand," he lamented. "They think I'm just the brilliant scientist that doesn't care."

"_I _understand," she said. "I saw the real Rodney McKay. And I liked him."

"You did?" he said, breaking into a nervous grin.

"Mm-hmm," she said, slipping off her chair.

She traced his cheek lightly with her fingertips.

"I think the real Rodney McKay and I are going to have to become better acquainted."

Their lips met fleetingly.

"Much better acquainted," she whispered.

Her mouth met his again and ships and space and science were suddenly of no interest to McKay. There was only her, soft and sweet and tender. For the first time in his life he felt wholly accepted and as her tongue entwined with his and his heart raced he knew that he'd found something he hadn't known was missing.

At length they broke apart with identical smiles. Keller squeezed his hand.

"I'll see you soon," she said. "Outpatient care is very important. You will need frequent, _thorough_ attention."

***

Hundreds of lights years away on the planet that had once been known as Danetheron, Lestor stood in the tower where he had damned an empire and examined the data streams. They changed quickly now as the millennia-old power supply ran beyond its capacity, building to a modulated explosion that would vaporise all the nano-machines on the planet.

Calculations flashed back and forth. Forgotten, intractable problems of the old empire were computed with the rapidly expanding processing power. A bright light began to emanante from every surface and a whine filled the air. The lines of data danced through the air, flailing wildly from one point to another. The mesh of data steams expanded and contracted and then finally converged on a single form as the light grew blinding.

"I'm so sorry," he said.

And the world went white.

**FIN**

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**Author's Note –** As usual all feedback and opinions much appreciated.

We have arrived at the end. Thank you all who made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the journey. I'm moderately happy with this story but there are a number of areas I aim to improve on in future. I intend to write a number of future stories, some for Atlantis and some in other domains and I hope that some of you will read those too and let me know if I'm getting better.

Special thanks to everyone who has taken the time to leave reviews, it means a lot.

I have ideas for a number of follow-up stories to this. These would further develop the themes and ideas introduced here while giving other characters a more prominent role. Rodney and Jennifer would still be key players because I love the characters. Let me know if you'd like to see them happen.


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